.^m^ "/.■'- '^^■ 















^•t»:'i 



t^V'i/yi'y 



*".*■ 5* < >"i','«"t'jr '"4 ■ ••■•'1 • >'i ci ' , >. ■ , 

.^'•;^L ^VA.TO'f. 'V:'-'«.! ' '- ■'m'.'.'l'.' ••* ' 

;»•; .11 ' k' ■ ■ ■" • . 

■^M^.'V^. ■ :,'' . .' ;/ ■ 

I.I : ,»'l r\* • > .' t 'I',, • I 

>•«■ I ,, I •';)''•■- ■ 



M. 



5l!] 



■VJ.VijI ■,-, I'h-ri lT.1 » •' 

i'&* 1 !•* • I ' ' ' ' '.'•' ' . I ■ ' • (1 




.1. 









;m&yr; iK^^yv ;■ :: :::V:: ■ 



■r ' 



■I J- A 1 



^1 



I 






M^ 



m 




Class 



PkKSKNTi:i) in' 








I 




/ ' ^a^ OirT.t^C, 



7> 



y 






ADAM W, SNYDER 



AND HIS PERIOD IN ILLINOIS HISTORY 



1817-1842. 



BY JOHN FRANCIS SNYDER, M, D, 



C I n^, 



To rescue a name worthy to be remembered and hon- 
ored, to recall great events, to look back, upon the deeds 
of those gone before us, are objects worthy of all consider- 
ation." —Hon.E. B. WasJihuruc. 



'»"* 

^ t* 






SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS. 
THE H. W. ROKKKR CO., PRINTERS AND IiINDKR«, 

1903. 



^ 5 






P. 



. ■'! 



• • • • 



• • « • f" 






«•« » • 



«4, 

A3 



f 63 / 



r 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Adam A^'. Snyder, and his Genealogy — Clerking in a country store 
in Knox County, Ohio, when discovered by Judge Thomas — 
Condition of Illinois when he arrived at Cahokia, in 1817 — A 
wool carder and law student IS 

CHAPTER 11. 

Introduction of steam power — Removal of the State Capitol to 
Vandalia — Daniel P. Cook and John McLean — Mr. Snyder 
admitted to the Bar — His marriage — State Bank of Illinois 
organized — Mr. Snyder appointed State's Attorney — Re-election 
of Judge Thomas to the U. S. Senate — The Slavery Convention 
scheme of 1824 33 

CHAPTER III. 

Mr. Snyder embarks in farming — Life on the farm — Anecdote — 
The Sugar Loaf settlement — Visit of General de LaFayette — 
Rise of the Jackson party — Election of Gov. Edwards and de- 
feat of Daniel P. Cook — The fifth General Assembly 52 

CHAPTER lY. -. ,. 

Gov. Edwards and John McLean — Election of Gen. Jackson and / 
dominance of the Jackson party — Progress of Education and 
Literature in Illinois — Numerous distilleries, and habits of 
liquor drinking — Reynolds and Kinney contest for Governor 

— Mr. Snyder elected to the State Senate 73 

CHAPTER V. 

The Wiggins Loan — State entitled to three Congressmen — The 
Whipping Post and Pillory Abolished — Winter of the Deep 
Snow — The State borrows $20,000 to pay current expenses — 
First campaign of the Black Hawk War — The Indians re- 
appear in 1832 — Two thousand volunteers are put in the field — 
Mr. Snyder's fight with Indians at Burr Oak Grove 92 

CHAPTER VI. 

The Black Hawk War. continued — Capt. Snyder's Company mus- 
tered cut of service — Major Dement's fight at Kellogg's Grove 

— March of the army up Rock River — Defection of Volun- 
teers — Gen' 1 James D. Henry — Duplicity of the Winnebagoes 

— Black Hawk's trail discovered — He is pursued, and the war 
ended in his defeat and capture 116 

CHAPTER VII. 

Gov. Edwards defeated for Congress by Charles Slade — Mr. Snyder 
re-elected to the State Senate — His removal from the American 
Bottom to Belleville — The cholera in Belleville in 1833 — Death 
of Gov. Edwards — The eighth General Assembly — The "Falling 
Stars" — Death of Mr. Slade by cholera — Reynolds and Snyder 
candidates for Congress — Gen' 1 Duncan deserts the Democratic 
party and joins the Whigs 130 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Death of the wife of Gov. Reynolds in 1834 — Gen'l Ewing Governor 
for fifteen days — Another State Bank established — Loan of 
half a million of dollars on State credit for the canal — The 
Wiggins Ferry Company — Gen'l Ewing- elected to the U. S. 
Senate for sixty-five days — Legislation of the second session 
of the ninth General Assembly. 152 

CHAPTER IX. 

Condition of the State in 1836 — Mr. Snyder again a candidate for 
Congress — Is elected over Gov. Reynolds and William J. Gate- 
wood — Tamarawa, the town projected by Mr. Snyder and Gen'l 
Semplo — "'The City of High Bluffs" — The tenth General Assem- 
bly — System of Internal Improvements inaugurated — Removal 
of the State Capitol authorized 173 

CHAPTER X. 

Mr. Snyder discovers James Shields — His carriage stalls in the 
Okaw sloughs, and he suffers in consequence — Gov. Reynolds 
embarks in Railroad building — Condition of Illinois in 1837 — 
Mr. Snyder goes to Washington, visiting ex-Senator Thomas on 
the way — Also visits Connellsville, Pa., the place of his birth 

— His health improved for a Short time — The Alton Riots and 
death of Lovejoy — Mr. Snyder in Congress 194 

CHAPTER XI. 

Invalid life in Washington — Mr. Snyder's discouraging struggle 
with the inevitable 217 

CHAPTER XII. 

Mr. Snyder willing to make the race for Governor in place of Col. 
Stephenson, withdrawn — Thomas Carlin nominated and elected 

— Internal Improvements continued — Mr. Snyder's summer va- 
cation—His Letters from Washington City to Mr. Koerner 236 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Hon. R. M. Young and Gov. Reynolds appointed special Com- 
missioners to sell State bonds in Europe — Their failure — Extra 
session of the Legislature — Total collapse of Internal Improve- 
ment scheme — State indebtedness — Incident on a Wiggins 
Ferry boat — Mr. Snyder a candidate for State Senator — Nom- 
inations of Harrison and Van Buren for President 255 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Gov. John Reynolds 271 

CHAPTER XV. 

The "Coon Skin and Hard Cider" Campaign of 1840 — Mr. Snyder" 
elected — He bet on Van Buren and lost — Extra session of the 
Legislature — Gillespie and Lincoln jump out of the Legislative 
hall to break the quorum — Reforming the Judiciary — The 
Mormon Charters — Stephen A. Douglas 298 



CHAPTER XVI. 

The twelfth General Assembly — Letters of Mr, Snj-der to Gov. 
Koerner — General Bankruptcy Law passed by Congress — Hard 
Times in Illinois in 1841 — Repudiationists and opposers of the 
Canal — Availability of Mr. Snyder for nomination as a Can- 
didate for Governor — Governor Reynolds and his friends favor 
him — Mr. Snyder's views on public questions 320 

CHAPTER XVII. 

The Democratic State Convention of 1841 — Mr. Snj-der nominated 
for Governor — Resigns his office of State Senator — His con- 
tinued ill health — The Mormons declare in his favor — Dr. Jo- 
seph Green — Gen'l Joseph Duncan chosen by the Whigs as 
their candidate for Governor — Death and burial of Mr. Snyder 
— Removal of his remains 338 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

Thomas Ford succeeds Mr. Snyder as candidate for Governor — His 
election — His insinuations refuted by himself — The truth of 
history 355 



APPENDIX. 

Note A — The Snyder Genealogy. 365 

Note B — John Francis Perry and his family 374 

Note C — Speech delivered in the State Senate on the bill to re- 
form the judiciary 383 

Note D — Muster roll of Capt. Snyder's Company in the Black 
Hawk War 393 



PREFACE. 

In the following" passes no pretense is made of exhaustive 
or systematic history of Illinois. Only so much of that 
history is blended with the biographical sketch of Adam 
W. Snyder, here presented, as to serve for a general review 
of the growth and progress of the State, of its Legislative 
management, and the contentions of its political parties, 
within the period included from 1817 to 1842, wath notices 
— more or less brief — of some of the prominent public men 
of that era. 

To write a full and satisfactory memoir of Mr. Snyder I 
found to be a difficult and discouraging undertaking, owing 
to the extreme paucity of necessary data. But a small boy 
myself at the date of his death, my remembrance of him is 
quite vague. All other members of his immediate family, 
and very nearly all others w^ho personally knew him, had 
passed away. He was always very reticent concerning 
himself and his genealog^^, and if at any time he confided 
to any one an account of his parents, and the story of his 
early life, that knowledge had long since been buried in 
the grave. Until I had almost finished this self-imposed 
task, not half a dozen pages of his manuscript w^ere known 
to be extant. Then a number of his letters were discovered 
among the old forgotten papers of the late Gov. Koerner, 
to whom they were written, and have herein been incor- 
porated. 

However, enough of his history was gleaned from public 
records and various other sources, to trace his successful 
career from obscure poverty to the honorable station he at- 
tained by force of his genius— with flattering prospects of 
fetill higher advancement —when, in the noontide of his 
manhood, death called him from the stage of action. It is 
not claimed that he was a great, or very superior, man; 



8 

but 'he was one of the self-reliant, self-educated and self- 
elevated pioneers, of pure character and sterling worth, 
whose labors and talents contributed, in some measure, to 
the incipient greatness and glory of Illinois. Surely no 
apology is necessary for this effort, however feeble, to rescue 
from oblivion the name and achievements of one who wit- 
nessed the birth of our great State, who was heard with 
deference in its councils, and who was debarred from its. 
highest honors only by untimely death. 

J. F. Snyder. 

Virginia, Ills. 



9 



INTRODUCTION. 

Jesse Burgess Thomas, the man who discovered Adam 
AV. Snyder, and. gave direction to his opinions and course 
Ihrough life, was a conspicuous actor in the political evo- 
lution of Illinois and its material progress from a trackless, 
lawless wilderness populated by a few Canadian French 
colonists and tribes of nomadic savages, to the position of 
a great State in the American Union. Physically rugged 
and intellectually strong, he possessed abilities that pecul- 
iarly fitted him for the rude experiences and difficulties of 
pioneer life, and for overcoming all obstacles in his way to 
success. 

He was born in Hagerstown, Maryland, in 1777, where 
the Thomas family long resided, and was descended from 
Lord Sir George Calvert, of the Irish peerage created in 
1624, to whose son, Cecilius Calvert, Baron of Baltimore, 
the Maryland patent was issued by Charles the Second, on 
June 20th, 1632. 

In 1779 his parents left Maryland and removed to 
Bracken county, Kentucky. There he grew up, working 
on the farm and attending such schools as the backwoods 
then afforded. In course of- time he studied law with his 
elder brother, Richard Symmes Thomas, a distinguished 
lawyer, who subsequently located in Lebanon, Ohio. After 
his admission to the bar, Jesse B. Thomas commenced the 
practice of law at his home in Brookville, the county seat 
of Bracken county, and shortly afterward married an es- 
timable young lady of that neighborhood, and settled 
down, apparently for the rest of his days. 

]\Ian, however, is but the puppet of circumstances, and 
his course in life is directed and shaped, in a great degree, 
by agencies, or accidents, unforseen and beyond his control. 
Mr. Thomas had been married scarcely a year when death 



10 

robbed him of his young wife, and thereby destroyed his 
well-laid plans and bright anticipations of the future. The 
sad scenes of his great bereavement were then so intolerable 
that he was compelled to leave them for peace of mind. 
AVith other emigrants, he went to Indiana Territory and 
located in Lawrenceburg, the county seat of Dearborn 
county, and there again commenced the practice of his pro- 
fession. That county was organized on the 7th of March, 
1803, and on the 3d of January, 1805, Mr. Thomas was 
elected a delegate to represent it in the territorial legisla- 
ture that convened at Vincennes on the 1st of February 
following, in obedience to the proclamation issued by Hon. 
William Henry Harrison, the newly appointed Governor of 
the territory. That meeting of the delegates was for the 
purpose of selecting members of the legislative council, or 
Senate, which they accomplished, and adjourned. Again, 
by proclamation of Governor Harrison, the completed Legis- 
lature met at Vincennes on the 29th of July, and, in its 
organization, Mr. Thomas was chosen to preside, as Speaker, 
over the house of delegates. He was re-elected Speaker at 
the second session, serving in that capacity three years and 
one month, when he was elected territorial delegate to 
Congress, to succeed Benjamin Parke, who had resigned. 

During his first legislative term he was commissioned by 
Governor Harrison, a captain in the militia, and while v 
serving the second term he married the widow of Major 
John Francis Hamtranck, and upon his election for delegate 
to Congress, changed his residence to Vincennes. 

After the admission of Ohio into the Union, in 1802, In- 
diana Territry was organized, embracing the present States 
of Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois, with General 
William Henry Harrison, then a Virginian member of 
Congress, appointed territorial governor by President Jef- 
ferson. The only settlements in Illinois at that time were at 
Kaskaskia, Cahokia and a few other villages in their vicin- 
ity. The remoteness of the people there from their terri- 
torial capital, Vincennes, and the difficulties and dangers in 



11 

maintainino- communication with it, caused them to desire 
a division of the territory and to estal)lishment a capitol 
and territorial fyovernment of their own. The question of 
separation was agitated by the Illinois settlers, and was 
made the issue in the election of their representatives to the 
Legislature of 1808. A majority of the Indiana members 
were decidedly opposed to separation, as was also Mr. 
Parke, the Congressional delegate. When he resigned, an 
opportunity was offered the Illinois members to elect his 
successor in their interest. 

Speaker Thomas, ambitious for promotion, desired to suc- 
ceed Mr. Parke in Congress, but could not be elected without 
support of the lUinoisans, and they Avould vote for him 
only on condition that he would pledge himself, if elected, 
to secure fi^om Congress an act for division of the territory. 
This pledge he gave without hesitation, but the Illinoisans 
at that early date had so little confidence in promises of 
politicians that they exacted of him a written bond for the 
faithful execution of his pledge, and that he gave them. 
He was elected by a bare majority, and that, too, it was 
said, by voting for himself. His term in Congress, as" dele- 
gate, was brief, serving from the 1st of December, 1808, to 
the 3d of March, 1809. But he fulfilled to the letter the 
terms of his obligation to the Illinoisans, securing passage 
of the law organizing the separate Territory of Illinois, 
with its capitol at Kaskaskia, approved March 7, 1809. 
The citizens of Vincennes were so incensed at what they 
considered his perfidy they hung him in efifigy, and heaped 
upon him, on his return from AVashington, the vilest abuse 
and reproach- 
Division of Indiana Territory necessarily terminated Air. 
Thomas' Congressional service. Aware of the unpopularity 
of territorial division in Indiana, and knowins- that it was 
fatal to his further political aspirations there, he made pro- 
vision for the future by obtaining from President ^Madison, 
before leaving AVashington City, the appointment to one 
Ol the three federal judgeships for the new Territory of 



12 

Illinois. Arriving- at Vincennes he immediately proceeded 
to his fresh field of official labors, and settled near Prairie 
du Rocher, ten miles north of Kaskaskia. 

His colleag'ues on the bench were Obediah Jones and 
Alexander Stuart. Nathaniel Pope, of Kentucky, who had 
received the appointment of territorial Secretary, had pre- 
ceeded the judges, and was located in Kaskaskia, the desig- 
nated capitol. The newly appointed governor of Illinois 
Territory, Ninian Edwards, arrived shortly after from 
Kentucky with a number of negro slaves, and herds of live 
stock of different kinds, and located on the alluvial bottom 
in close proximity to Judge Thomas, and there established 
an extensive farm that he named "Elvirade," in honor of 
his wife Elvira. As an inducement to those very compe- 
tent men to accept, Avith their offices and meagre salaries, so- 
cial exile and many privations on the far western frontier, 
Congress, by special act, granted to the Governor one thou- 
sand acres of land, and to each of the other appointees five 
hundred acres, to be selected by them from any part of the 
public domain within the territory not reserved for forts, or 
already occupied by settlers. By agreement, the territorial 
officials located their grants of land in the same locality, 
on the alluvial plain near the range of bluff's. 

But rural life was not agreeable to Judge Thomas, and 
he soon changed his residence to Cahokia, the countv seat 
of St. Clair County, where he held court and identified him- 
self with the society and interests of that old village. "He 
was," says Gov. Reynolds, "a man of talents, but did not 
particularly employ his mind on the dry subtilties of the 
law. ' '* His brain was too active to be enslaved by the dry 
drudgerv of the courts. Durina' his nine vears' residence 
in Cahokia, and of his incumbency of the territorial judge- 
ship, he discharged his official duties with marked ability, 
fidelity and promptness, and yet found time to engage in 
various business pursuits advantageous to his own financial 
interests. He carried on farming, and several other indus- 

* Reynolds Pioneer History of Illinois. Second edition. 1SS7, p. 401. 



13 

tries, and was always ready to embark in any enterprise 
of benefit to the publie and himself. • 

Of the domestic animals introdnced into the territory at 
an early day, sheep soon ranked among- the most valuable, 
their wool bein^- indispensable to the pioneers for the man- 
niaetnre of blankets and various articles of clothinor. The 
method then employed for convertino- wool, with home- 
raised cotton, into jeans, linsey and other textile fabrics in 
common use, involved a great amount of tedious, patient, 
manual labor. 'J'he carding of wool by hand with small 
cards to fit it for the spinning wheel was a slow process, con- 
suming much of the time that the women could apply 
profitably to other household duties. Observing that fact, 
Judge Thomas concluded that a wool-carding machine 
moved by ox power, such as Avere then in successful opera- 
tion in parts of Kentucky and Ohio, if established in Caho- 
kia, would be patronized by the community, and very prob- 
ably prove for himself a paying investment. 

An obstacle encountered at the inception of that enter- 
prise was the want of an expert in the wool-carding art to 
take charge of and manage the business. He could hear of 
no one in the territory who knew anything about a carding 
machine, but he was not the kind of man to be deterred 
from an object, or purpose he had determined upon by such 
a trifling difficulty as that. He felt assured that in Ohio, 
where his relatives resided, he could readilv secure the serv- 
ices of a competent person well acquainted with that in- 
dustry, whom he could employ on reasonable terms. For 
some time he had contemplated a visit to his kinsmen in 
Ohio, and that new project decided him to go there at once. 
Having made all necessary preparations, he left Cahokia 
early in the spring of 1817 and proceeded by keel boat down 
the Mississippi and up the Ohio river to Pittsburg. There 
he purchased, with goods of various kinds, the cards and 
machinery for the modest factory he proposed planting in 
Cahokia as an experiment. From Pittsburg, Judge Thomas 
continued his journey to the interior of Ohio. At Mt. 



14 

Vernon, the countv seat of Knox county, while enjovinof his 
\isit amon«]r relatives, he learned, in answer to his inquiries, 
that a vouns: man familiar with avooI cardinij bv machinery 
had recently come into that county, and was then in the 
employ of Dayid McFarland. the owner of a country store 
at a little cross-roads place a few miles south-east of ^Ix. 
Vernon. Hiding- out to that place some days later, Judge 
Thomas met the youth mentioned and was very favorably 
impressed with his manly appearance and intelligence. 

He was a tall, straight stripling, not yet eighteen years 
of age, with fair complexion, dark sandy hair, and blueish- 
gray eyes, quite gentlemanly in his manner and deport- 
ment, and a fluent, though modest, talker. Having the 
world before him from which to coerce his fortune, and 
seeing now a favorable opportunity to reach the far west 
— the objective point of his day dreams and jourueyings— - 
lie gladly accepted the judge's proposition to go to Cahokia 
and take charse of the carding machine there. Xotwith- 
standing ]Mr. ]\IcFarland's great reluctance to part with 
liim he soon came to an agreement Avith Judge Thomas re- 
garding terms and wases. 

Steamboats were then beginning to revolutionize the 
means of transportation on the western rivers. The first 
boat propelled by steam power west of the Allegheny moun- 
lains was the "New Orleans," built at Pittsburg, Pa., in 
1811, bv Robert Fulton, Chancellor Livingston and Nicholas 
J. Roosevelt, all of New York, just four years after the 
Clermont, built by Fulton and Livingston, made— on the 
Hudson river between New York Citv and Albany— the 

t. ft 

first; successful passage ever achieved by a steam-driven 
boat.. The first steamboat to ascend the IMississippi above 
Ihe mouth of the Ohio was the "General Pike," that arrived 
at St. Louis on the 2d day of August, 1817, having on board 
the goods and carding machine purchased by Judge Thomas 
at Pittsburg.* 

* That is traditional only. Much more probably the articles pur- 
chased at Pittsburg b>' Judge Thomas were conveyed to Cahokia by 
keel boats, and arrived there long before the General Pike. 



15 

In pursuance of the act of Cong:ress, approved on the 18th 
of Apri], 1818, enablin^^ the people of the Territory of 
Illinois to form, on certain specified conditions, a State 
government, an election was held on the first ^Monday, Tues- 
day and AVednesday, the 6th, 7th and 8th of July, of that 
year, for delegates to a convention to frame a State consti- 
tution. At that election Judge Thomas was chosen one of 
the three delegates from St. Clair county ; and when the 
delegates came together at Kaskaskia, on the first ^Monday 
of the following month, August 3d, and organized the con- 
vention, Judge Thomas was elected its presiding officer, or 
I*resident. 

The first Legislature of the new State, comprising thirteen 
senators and twenty-five representatives, convened at Kas- 
kaskia on the 5th of October, 1818. After completing its 
organization, it proceeded, on December the 4th, to the 
election of two United States Senators, one of whom was 
the Territorial Governor, Ninian Edwards, and the other. 
Judge Jesse B. Thomas. The third General Assembly re- 
elected Judge Thomas for another term, extending his serv- 
ice in the Senate to :\Iarch 3, 1829. In 1820, when the 
question of admitting the Territory of Missouri into th>^ 
Union as a slave state was under consideration by Congress, 
Judge Thomas proposed its solution by offering to the 
Senate a bill embodying the famous "Missouri compro- 
mise" measure, and was chairman of the conference commit- 
tee of representatives selected by both houses of Congress 
that agreed upon recommending its adoption. And his influ- 
ence and persistent efforts secured its final adoption by Con- 
gress. To his astute statesmanship, therefore, the country 
was indebted for quieting, for many years, the exciting and 
vicious agitation of extension of slavery into the territories. 

Until his removal from Illinois, in 1829, he was always 
an advocate of slavery, and partial to the south and south- 
ern institutions. He was a personal friend and political 
supporter of Hon. AVilliam H. Crawford, of Georgia, and, 
in 1824, was a member of the Congressional caucus that 



16 

I>laced that gentleman in nomination for the presidency — 
that being then the usual method of nominating presidential 
candidates. In zealously supporting Mr. Crawford he an- 
tagonized General Jackson, for whom he had no admiration 
and but little respect, with the result of alienating from 
himself the confidence and friendship of the party in Ill- 
inois, then loyal to Jackson, of which he had been a strong 
and conspicuous leader. With too much self respect and 
X^ride of character to stultify himself by humbly giving his 
allegiance to Jackson, even for a Senatorship, he manfully 
accepted the alternative, and, at the close of his second term 
in the Senate, left the State and located in Mt. Vernon, 
Ohio, and there henceforth acted with the Whig party. 

"In 1840 he took an active part in effecting the nomina- 
tion of his old friend. Gen. Harrison, for president, and at- 
tended the (Whig) convention held that year at Columbus, 
Ohio. In 1829 he assisted in the organization of St. Paul's 
Episcopal church of Mt. Vernon, Ohio, of which he was a 
consistent member, and Avhere he owned a large property. 
He was also one of the town proprietors of Brookville, 
I'ranklin county, Indiana. In stature he was full six feet, 
with florid-brown complexion, dark hazel eyes, dark brown 
hair (nearly black), with a well-developed muscular system, 
and weighed over two hundred pounds ; was very particular 
in his personal appearance, and had the mode of a refined 
gentleman of the last century; was very considerate of the 
rights and feelings of others, and would not buy at a 
sheriff's sale. 

"He died childless at Mt. Vernon, Ohio, leaving a large 
estate, May 4, 1853, aged 75 years. "* 

In the seventy-sixth year of his age his vigorous mind 
became deranged, and his eventful and distinguished life 
was suddenly terminated by his own act. His wife, Re- 
becca, for whom he retained all his youthful affection, died 
in 1851. From constantly brooding over her death and his 

* Footnote by Samuel Morrison on pp. 401-402 of Reynolds' Pioneer 
History of Illinois. Second (or Fergus) edition. Chicago, 1887. 



17 

lonely condition, his "reat intellect was gradually over- 
Avhelmed by deep dejection and melancholy nntil his ex- 
istence becamt^ an intolerable bnrden. Evading the vigi- 
lance of those who were caring fcr him, he committed 
suicide bv cutting his throat with a razor. 



CHAPTER L 

Adam W. Snyder, and his Genealogy — Clerking- in a country store in 
Knox County, Ohio, when discovered by Judge Thomas — Con- 
dition of Illinois when he arrived at Cahokia, in 1S17 — A wool 
carder and law student. 

The young man Judge Thomas met at David ]\IeFarland's 
store in Knox county, Ohio, and employed to run his card- 
ing machine at Cahokia was named Adam AYilson Snyder. 

He was born in Connellsville, Favette county, Pennsvlva- 
nia, on the 6th of October, 1799. His father, Adam 
Snyder, was a native of Strasburg, in Alsace— luitil 1870 a 
province of France— and migrated to America when a 
young man, locating in the town of ^Reading, Pennsylvania, 
where he followed his trade of house carpenter. He was a 
soldier in the Revolutionary war, and, while in that service, 
Avas wounded at the battle of Brandy wine. After his dis- 
charge from the colonial army he changed his residence to 
the vicinity of Harrisburg, and there remained until the 
death of his wife, when he moved to Connellsville, and was 
a citizen of that place 'until his death, at an advanced age, 
in 1830. He was twice married. Of his first marriage 
nothing is now definitely known, only that his wife died in 
or near Harrisburg, Pa., leaving three children, a son and 
two daughters. His second marriage was with a widow, 
Schaeffer, whose maiden name was Hartzell. The fruits 
of that union were four children, named Adam AY., Hiram, 
Solomon K., and Lydia.* 

Nothing is now known of Adam AV. Snvder's early boy- 
hood, excepting that he was reared in poverty, and began 
when quite young to be self-sustaining. Though tall and 
well proportioned, he was never robust, or capable of severe 
physical exertion. With inherited consumptive diathesis, 
and unable to bear the strain of continued manual labor, he 

* See Appendix, Note A, for further family history. 



19 

"v.'as compelled to seek some other, and less arduous, sphere 
of activity by which to earn subsistence. By working dur- 
ing the summer months at wool carding and other light oc- 
cupations he managed to support himself and attend an 
occasional term of school during the winter months. He 
was precocious intellectually, and with those limited oppor- 
tunities, gained a fair knowledge of the elementary branch- 
es usually taught in country schools at that time.* 

Weary of the hopeless drudgery that had been his lot from 
childhood, and aspiring to a higher and better condition in 
life he saw no possibility of attaining there, he was moved 
by an irresistable impulse to go out into the world and at- 
tempt to win from it, besides his daily bread, an honorable 
position among men. The opportunities for accomplishing 
the realization of that purpose in western Pennsylvania at 
that time by any other means than muscular contention with 
the stony, reluctant soil, were so few and uninviting that 
he concluded, Avhen seventeen years of age, to try his for- 
tunes in the far west, of which he had heard such glowing 
accounts. Fully determined upon that course he took leave 
of his parents and kindred and proceeded, afoot and alone, 
to Brownsville, and from that point worked his passage on 
a flatboat down the ]\lonongahela river to Pittsburg. 

His father 's first children, a son and two daughters, had, 
some years before, emigrated to the western part of Ohio, 
and were there comfortably settled and prosperous. Ilis 
half brother, engaged in farming in Prebble county in that 
State, near the border of Indiana, had invited him to come 
there, assuring him that he would readily secure remuner- 
Mive employment in his neighborhood at some suitable oc- 
cupation. The romance and glamour of the boundless west 
and mighty Mississippi had captivated his fancy, and in- 
spired him wdth the spirit of adventure and enterprise. In 
order to reach the goal of his day dreams he had concluded 

* There are reasons for believing that when quite youn^ he was 
apprenticed by his lather, to a wool carder; and that servitude becom- 
ing intolerable, he took unceremonious leave of his master before 
expiration of his period of indenture, and left the State. 



20 

to accept his brother's invitation and remain there until he 
earned means sufficient to continue his journey farther 
westward. With that view he resolute] v set out from Pitts- 
burg to traverse the state of Ohio afoot, with all his worldly 
possessions tied up in a moderately sized bundle carried on 
his back. 

He had accomplished about the half of that long- and 
wearisome tramp when he arrived one evening, tired and 
footsore, at the straggling crossroads settlement in Knox 
county having its one store of general merchandise belong- 
ing to ]\Ir. McFarland, a young man but a few years older 
than himself. It was on the main overland route from 
New York and Pennsylvania to the western territories, and 
the little store was w^ell patronized by many of the emi- 
grants daily passing it, and also by neighboring settlers. 
The merchant needed an assistant to help him serve his 
numerous customers until the close of the migrating season, 
and, as the young traveler laid his pack down and, seating 
himself on a box near the store door, enquired if there was 
a tavern in the village where he could stay over night, the 
thought occurred to Mr. McFarland that this dust-soiled 
I)ilgrim at his door might answer his purpose as a clerk. 
To his questions the young wayfarer gave straightforward 
answers, telling frankly his simple antecedents and the 
object of his long journey. 

His pluck and perseverance and the evident candid truth- 
fulness of his story strongly impressed ]\Ir. McFarland, and 
he invited him to his home near by to pass thiC night, and 
the invitation was gratefully accepted. After further con- 
versation, so well pleased was the merchant with the intel- 
ligence and practical ideas of the young stranger that he 
offered him the position in his store, stipulating a reason- 
able salary for his services. 

That proposition, affording needed rest and the oppor- 
tunity for earning means to further prosecute his west- 
ward travels, was accepted by young Snyder, and next 
morning he was installed in his new vocation. AVith no 



21 

previous training or experience in that line of business, his 
natural aptness soon enabled him to become so efficient that 
liis employer was very desirous to retain him indefinitely 
at a hiiiher salary. 

Illinois Territory was then attracting widespread atten- 
tion and enlisting the interest especially of the restless and 
enterprising classes of the older states. To the sturdy agri- 
culturists Avho Avished to secure cheap and fertile land, it 
presented extraordinary inducements. To laborers and 
mechanics, to capitalists with means to invest, to profes- 
sional men, and adventurers who had nothing to lose and 
all to gain, and to young men of energy, industry and am- 
bition, bent upon advancing their fortunes, it was reputed 
to be a most promising field. Young Snyder had heard 
something of the grand prairies, the beautiful woodlands 
and fine lakes and streams of that distant region— enough to 
stir him with a longing desire to see it, and a fixed intention 
to get there, if possible, and to cast his destinies with its 
people. So, when the unexpectied proposal of Judge 
Thomas was offered, to proceed there at once, with assur- 
ance of remunerative employment on arrival at his destina- 
tion, he saw the realization of his hopes at hand, and gladly 
accepted it, though regretting to part with his newly- found 
friends who had treated him with such disinterested kind- 
ness. 

Taking leave of his employer* and the villagers aoout 
the store, he once more slung his pack over his shoulders 
and, with youthful vigor and buoyant spirits, again set nig 
face westward in the early hours of a beautiful morninjr 
in ]\iay. He walked all the way to Cincinnati, thence de- 
scended the Ohio river in a flat boat to Shawneetown, and 
> ... 

from that settlers' gateway into Illinois walked, in company 

* In ISrj Mr. McFarland disposed of his interests in Ohio' rtnd fol- 
lowed Mr. Snyder to Illinois. He stopped for awhile at P^dwards- 
ville, and in" the Spring- of ISl'O pui-chased a farm in Ridge Prairie. St. 
Clair County, seven miles north of Belleville, and there resided until 
his death that occurred on the 20th of February, 1872. He ever 
retained a warm feeling for the young stranger he had employed 
in his country store, and remained through life his steadfast personal 
and political friend. 



22 

with other immigrants, to Cahokia, arriving there early in 
June, 1817. 

Cahokia— the oldest town in the ^Mississippi valley, a vil- 
lage of the Tamarwa and Cahokia Indians when Father 
Finet established a mission there in 1698— was, in 1817, but 
little surpassed in population by Kaskaskia, the territorial 
capitol, and quite its equal in commercial importance. It 
was no longer the county seat of St. Clair county— Belle- 
ville, 12 miles east of it, haviaig been made the seat of justice 
of the county three years before— but the county officials 
still resided there. John Hays, a native, of New York, was 
sheriff of the county from 1802 to 1819, and postmaster at 
Cahokia for an equal length of time. John Hay, born in 
Detroit and the son of a Pennsvlvanian, was clerk of the 
county and circuit courts, probate judge and notary public 
for manv vears. Cahokia was also the home of Judg^e 
Thomas, Dr. William G. Goforth, John Reynolds, Joseph A. 
Beaird, a future state senator, AYilliam Anderson Beaird, 
subsequently sheriff from 1819 to 1830, and a few other 
"Americans," as English-speaking settlers were designated 
by the French inhabitants. They all spoke the Creole dia- 
lect and conformed to Creole customs, and those of the in- 
trusive element who were married, with the exception of 
Judge Thomas, had Creole wives. They promoted in a 
marked degree the business interests of the old town, and, 
with their educated sons and daughters, imparted to its so- 
ciety quite a tone of refinement. 

The native French population of the American bottom 
vrere, with few^ exceptions, non-progressive, indolent and 
generally illiterate, giving but little thought to the problems 
of life beyond gratification of present wants and comfort, 
trusting the future to Providence and the priest — the priest 
especially, who was their amanuensis, business adviser and 
sj)iritual guide. They had no incentive to avarice; 
no inclination to depravity, nor ambition for wealth 
or distinction. Personal ease and festive amuse- 
ments were apparently the chief objects of their existence. 



23 

They were merry, friendly and hospitable, and while the 
broadest freedom of speech and action was tolerated in their 
social intercourse, they were sober, honest and virtuous. 

The prolific soil, and other natural resources of the coun- 
try, supplied them bountifully with all necessaries for sub- 
sistence with little exertion *on their part. As they were 
not prodigal of labor, and were totally without enterprise 
or public spirit, providing' food, shelter and clothing was 
about the limit of their industrial efforts. Exempt from 
the curse of taxation and other penalties of more refined 
civilization, and having no artificial wants to harass them, 
ihey wre contented, and as contentment is better than 
riches, they were opulent and happy. They were singularly 
tolerant of strangers of nationalities, creeds and languages 
<liffering from their own. Recognizing the advantages and 
power of education, they meekly yielded the palm of supe- 
riority to the "Americans,'' and willingly submitted to 
their political supremacy. They assimilated readily with 
inferior races, adopting unhesitatingly inferior methods, 
but their simple habits, manners and customs were little 
affected or improved by contact with people of advanced 
culture. They dwelled in harmony and accord with the 
incoming: descendants of the Anglo-Saxon, and the dark- 
eyed Creole maiden, or widow, who was taken in marriage 
by an "American" was regarded by the community as pe- 
culiarly fortunate. 

In 1817 the pioneers were rapidly extending their settle- 
irents throughout the southern portion of Illinois Territory. 
The Indians formerly roaming over that region had retired 
north to, and beyond, the Sangamon river, with the excep- 
tion of a few wandering bands who lingered about their 
ancestral hunting grounds, loth to leave them, as bees that 
still circle around their destroyed hive. The last wild 
buffalo in Illinois was killed in 1816, and the last of the elks 
in 1818.* A few beavers successfully eluded their merciless 

*• History of the English Settlement in Edwards County. By 
<3eorge Flower. Chicago. Fergus Co.; 1SS2. j^p. ::93-35S. 



24 

human enemies for some years later. The last tAvo known in 
Central Illinois were killed in that portion of the Sangamon 
river traversing- Menard county, in 1876. The stream of 
immigrants coming into the territory from the southern 
and eastern states, and a few from Europe, was annually 
increasing. Settlements, planted at first only adjacent to 
rivers near the borders of the territory, had then spread for 
many miles inland, and dotted the country over, at inter- 
vals, from the Mississippi to the Wabash. The Indian title 
to the Salines in Gallatin and Vermilion counties were ex- 
tinguished, and the production of salt there had grown to 
be an important industry. Mills operated by horse or water 
power were erected here and there, and a few tan yards for 
conversion of raw hides into leather were successfully con- 
ducted. Then, and for several years later, farms, known as 
"clearings," were all made on timbered lands, or alluvial 
bottoms, as no means had yet been introduced or contrived 
for "breaking" the heavy prairie sod, and in consequence 
prairie lands were undesirable and considered valueless ex- 
cepting for grazing purposes. 

Each French village had its Catholic church. In some of 
the new settlements were beginnings of Protestant religious 
organizations, and a few school houses. Lawless and vic- 
ious characters are usually among the first to seek the 
frontiers— to escape the obligations of civil power, the col- 
lection of debts, and penalties for their crimes. Their 
presence in new settlements where society is yet unregu- 
lated by constitutional authority, has a demoralizing influ- 
<^nce, tending to degradation and social depravity. Illinois 
at that early date — as all our outlying territories have been 
before and since — was the refuge of that class who recog- 
nize no laAv, civil or moral. 

The Territory of Illinois had but ten counties organized 
in 1817, and in some of those the restraints of law were so 
lax that a condition approaching anarchy prevailed. Some 
01 the counties Avere infested with outlaws, horse thieves and 
counterfeiters, so numerous and well combined as to defy 



25 

the feeble territorial provisions for the adiiiinisti'ation of 
justice. "]\Iany of the sheriffs, justices of the peace, aiicl 
constables, were of the number, and even some of the judges 
of the county courts, and they had numerous friends to aid 
them and sympathize with them amonii those who \\»ere least 
suspected. AVhen any of them were arrested they either 
escaped from the slight jails of those times, or procured 
some of their gang to be on the jury, and they never lacked 
witnesses to prove themselves innocent."* 

Those continued abuses and outrages compelled the re- 
spectable and honest citizens to band together in companies 
of '' Regulators," and take the enforcement of the laws 
into their own hands. Miscreants apprehended were tried 
in the court of Judge Lynch, and, if found guilty, were 
summarily punished. By that vigorous course the perpe^ 
tration of crime was in time abated in all the settlements 
excepting those bordering on the Ohio river. There ready 
escape into the swamps and into Kentucky enabled the ruf- 
fians when pursued to baffle the Regulators until 1831, when 
the citizens generally of two or three border counties com- 
bined with arms and one small piece of artillery and stormed 
their stronghold near the Ohio, killing some, and dispersing 
the balance, eft'ectually rid the State of their presence and 
misdeeds. 

The office seeker was abroad in almost everv town and 
settlement, busily agitating the question of State organiza- 
tion, circulating petitions to congress for necessary legisla- 
tion to that end, and making the people believe the territorj" 
contained the requisite population of 40,000 for admission 
into the Union as a State. The prevalence of lawlessness 
and crime was an eff'ective argument for adopting a 
stronger and more systematic form of government, and but 
few opposed the movement. 

Such was the condition of Illinois Territorv when Adam 
"\V. Snyder, one sultry evening in June, arrived in Cahokia, 
dusty and tired, from his last hundred mile walk, and laid 

* Ford's History of Illinois, pp. 232-3. 



26 

clown his pack at the door of the village cniherge or inn. 
Judge Thomas lost no time after his return from the east 
in getting together the necessary materials for his carding 
machine building. In a short time he had on the ground 
the lumlier, rock, etc., required, also the masons and car- 
penters, and the work was commenced under his immediate 
supervision. The structure was of wood, supported several 
feet above the ground by pillars and walls of stone, forming 
a roomy basement for the motive power, a great inclined 
wheel, to be revolved on its vertical axis by the constant 
tread of oxen. 

Youno: Snvder arrived in Cahokia a few davs before 
Judge Thomas, and by the time all preparations were made 
to commence work on the building he was sufficiently rested 
to offer his services in any capacity in which he could be 
useful. Prolonged idleness was not one of his habits, nor 
would the state of his attenuated finances permit him to 
long indulge it ; so he set in as a day laborer, mixing mortar 
and carrying it in a hod to the masons as needed, and plac- 
ing the building stones within their convenient reach. When 
the stone work was finished he discarded the hod, but con- 
tinued his labors as an attendant upon, and general help to, 
the carpenters until the house was completed. About that 
time the cards and machinery arrived and were placed in 
position and geared to the treadwheel. He was then in- 
stalled, in overalls and apron on the main floor above the 
patient, trudging oxen on the wheel, to keep them moving 
while the cards and drums converted, for his customers, 
their packages of wool into rolls suitable for the spinning 
wheel. 

That carding machine erected by Judge Thomas was the 
first one in Illinois — the hmnble pioneer of a vast industry 
that has contributed largely to creating the wealth and 
greatness of the State- 

The old French town and its quaint people speaking — to 
him — an unknown tongue, and all his other novel surround- 
ings, at first impressed the young Pennsylvanian strangely 



27 

and not very favorably, but the cordial welcome and respect 
that greeted him wherever he went quickly dissipated the 
unpleasantness of his isolated situation. The machnie was 
vrell patronized from the day it was set in motion, and was 
operated to its full capacity daily— Sundays excepted— 
until late in the autunni. And when the carding season 
closed the young wool carder was gratified by the assurance 
that his work had been very satisfactory to his patrons and 
employer alike. 

He had in early life learned the German language; then, 
in Cahokia, surrounded by a French-speaking people, he 
applied himself diligently, with the parish priest as his 
instructor, to learning the French language also. In that 
study he made rapid progress, and as he gradually 
mastered the Creole dialect his associations became more 
agreeable, and his interests more closely interwoven with 
those of his fellow villagers. His social, affable disposition 
and frank, pleasant manners attracted friendships; and 
the unaffected, simple society of Cahokia, recognizing no 
castes, or distinctions based on vocations or degrees of 
wealth, was very gracious to- him, and, before winter had 
passed, included him among its favorites. 

A better acquaintance with the young man, as time 
passed, increased the interest of Judge Thomas in his 
welfare. Observation of certain trails of his mind and 
character led the Judge to believe that the boy was fitted 
for a higher station in life than the one he then occupied. 
At the close of Indian summer, Avhen the machine was shut 
up for the winter, he settled with him and paid him the 
wages he had earned. He complimented him highly for 
his honest, faithful attention to business, and then said 
that while he would gladly retain him in that employment 
as long as he would i-emain in it, he thought him entirely 
out of place in work of that kind. He farther kindly sug- 
gested to him the idea of utilizing the long, idle winter 
before him bv the study of law, Jienerouslv off!erino- him 
the use of his l)ooks and office and ample facilities for 



28 

learning- the elementary principles of the legal profession, 
\\rith such instruction as he could at times give him. 

Recovering from the surprise of that benevolent and 
flattering proposal, that touched a responding chord in his 
self-esteem, young Snyder gratefully accepted it, and at 
once entered with spirit and determination upon the new 
career fortuitous circumstances had opened to him. He 
began immediately close, systematic application to his 
books ; and ail winter, until the return of mild weather in 
the next spring, he made the best use possible of the liberal 
advantages the Judge had placed at his command. An oc- 
casional evening for recreation among the young: people of 
the village— sometimes chosen one of the "Kings" in the 
dance— Avas all the time he lost. As an office student he 
was often very serviceable to his ])atron by attending to 
various business matters for him Avhen absent. His habits 
were unexceptionable, and his courteous deportment and 
sprightliness won him the respect and esteem of all the 
communitv. 

Judge Thomas was at that time, next to Governor Ed- 
wards, the most prominent and influential man in the Ter- 
ritory. He Avas a good lawyer, a successful and shrewd 
flnancier, and able politician, having a peculiar faculty 
for gaining and retaining the confidence and friendship 
of people, and converting them to his views. His prede- 
lictions w^ere all for the south, and he supported all public 
measures contended for by southern statesmen. Born, 
and nurtured, in slaveholding States, and accustomed all 
his life to the institution of slavery, he firmly believed it 
to be right in principle and practice, and so maintained 
on all occasions. But even those Avho differed from him 
on that, and other, questions, esteemed him highly for the 
candor and frankness of his contentions, and for his ability, 
his sincerity and honor. There were few citizens of the 
Territory so implicitly trusted as was Judge Thomas, and 
none whose opinions were more respected. 
' John Reynolds was then a resident of Cahokia, a prac- 



29 

tieing- lawyer, and lint recently married. lie was twenty- 
nine years of age, in robnst health and in full vigor of body 
and mind. Energetic and active he had by association 
with his cousin, Joseph A. Beaird, a shrewd, competent 
business man, become quite prosperous. Emerging from 
the condition of poverty and dependence in which he was 
reared, his success in accumulating property and gaining 
some prominence in the connnunity. ejcalted his natural 
egotism and stinnilated the development of that inordinate 
desire for public position that made him a notable figure 
in the political history of Illinois. As sergeant of a com- 
pany of rangers, and a militia, judge advocate he had 
tasted the fascination of office and authority, and that fas- 
cination grew with- him to be the absorbing passion of his 
life. With all his strong natural sense and many excellent 
traits of character John Reynolds was afflicted with mean 
and jealous envy of those who achieved success in the 
lines of his own aspirations— a fault by no means un- 
common among politicians. 

He envied the popularity and high station of Judge 
Thomas, and, consequently, disliked him, although they 
were in perfect unison in regard to slavery and all other 
public questions. When the constitutional convention was 
called, Reynolds intimated his Avillingness to sacrifice his 
time and lausiness in order to represent St. Clair County 
,as a delegate in that body; but did not receive sufficient 
encouragement from his "friends" to offer as a candidate 
for it. Judge Thomas was elected a delegate, was 
chosen president of the convention, and thus gained the 
lasting enmity of Reynolds. Until his intimate association 
with Judge Thomas in Cahokia, Adam W. Snyder, whose 
life had thus far been a ceaseless struggle for subsistence, 
had never given the matter of politics a serious thought. 
He had formed no opinions, or reflected at all, upon the 
fabric of our government, and its political institutions, 
and had no acciuaintance whatever with any of the public 
men of the day. His first view of slavery was in Illinois, 



30 

where he saw it in its least objectionable aspect, as a 
patriarchial system having few, if any, of the revolting 
features attending human slavery as it then existed in 
the southern states. In the office of Judge Thomas he 
daily heard political ciuestions freely discussed, and be- 
came interested in them. The opinions there expressed 
upon public affairs, especially by Judge Thomas, were new 
to him, and deeply impressed his receptive mind and ex- 
panding ideas. 

The high official 'and social station occupied by Judge 
Thomas, and the still more eminent position to which he 
was shortly afterward elevated by the people's representa- 
•tives in the Legislature, were, he thought, a sure criterion 
not only of his abilities, but also of the correctness of his 
views. His reliance in the wisdom and matured judgment 
of his benefactor was unbounded, and the kindness and 
assistance he had received from him claimed his sincere 
gratitude. He looked up to Judge Thomas as a prudent 
adviser and safe mentor, and regarded his achievements 
as highly worthy of emulation. 

Under the circumstances it is not at all surprising that 
he sanctioned the Judge 's political convictions, and adopted 
them as his own, including the question of African slavery, 
upon which there was at the time but little difference of 
opinion among the leading men of the Territory. Nor is 
it strange that at that period, when no organized political 
parties existed in Illinois, and voters at elections divided 
simply upon their preferences for individual candidates, 
young Snyder was enlisted in the Thomas faction. Or, 
that at the election, in 1818, for delegates to the con- 
vention, though a minor, not entitled to vote, he was never- 
theless an enthusiastic supporter of Judge Thomas, and 
did all he could to aid his election. John Revnoids did 
not openly oppose Thomas: but would have rejoiced over 
his defeat, had that result been possible. He had no kind 
feeling for him, or for those actively promoting his poli- 
tical interests. Consequestly, young Snyder, whom he re- 



31 

garded justly, as a Thomas henchman, fell under the ban 
of his displeasure, and from that election dates the politi- 
cal antagonism that existed between Reynolds and Snyder 
continuing- with more or less asperity, throughout life. 

Thi"oughout the sunnner and fall of 1818, Avhen Illinois 
w£is in the throes of transition from the Territorial to a State 
form of government, and anxious politicians, speculators 
and adventurers were scheming- and laboring for offices, 
emoluments and profits, Snyder remained at his post in the 
carding" machine, industriously attentive to his work, and 
to the interests of his employer. To his books he still 
devoted his leisure hours ; but they were very few. From 
early dawn to evening twilight through each week he was 
busy with the care of his motive power, and the light, but 
irksome, duties of managing his factory. 

Hon. Jesse B. Thomas', one of the three delegates chosen 
to represent St. Clair County, in the convention to frame 
a State constitution, was, in its organization at Kaskaskia, 
on August 3d, 1818, elected to preside over its delibera- 
tions. By the first Legislature of the new State, in the 
following October, he was elected, with Gov. Xinian Ed- 
wards, to represent Illinois in the United States Senate, and 
drew the long or full term. After his election to that 
high and honorable position, he disposed of his interests 
in Cahokia and changed his residence to the new town 
founded by Gov. Edwards and bearing his name, Edwards- 
ville, the county seat of Madison County, and continued 
to reside there until he left the State in 1829. Upon leaving 
Cahokia, in December after his election, to enter upon his 
new duties at AYashington City, Senator Thomas placed his 
unsettled business in St. Clair Countv in charge of his 
law student as his agent, and permitted him to retain such 
books in his library as he needed for present use. 

AVith the close of the season's work, in the late autunui 
of 1818, Mr. Snyder laid aside his greasy apron and took 
final leave of the wool carding business. Again he estab- 
lished himself in the office vacated by Judge Thomas, and 



32 

passed that Avinter, as he did the one before, in close appli- 
cation to his studies. His agency for Senator Thomas 
proved a practical and profitable introduction to the busi- 
ness career for which he was striving to fit himself. The 
elevation of John Reynolds by the Legislature, in Decem- 
ber, to the supreme coui't judgeship, left Cahokia without 
a practicing lawyer, much to the law student's advantage, 
as it inducted him, without effort on his part, to practice 
in the courts of justices of the peace and probate court, 
proving for him a valuable school of experience. 



CHAPTER II. 

Introduction of steam power — Removal of the State Capitol to Van- 
dalia — Daniel P. Cook and John McLean — Mr. Snyder admitted 
to the Bar — His marriage — State Bank of Illinois organized — 
Mr. Snyder appointed State's Attorney — Re-election of Judge 
Thomas to the U. S. Senate — The Slavery Convention scheme 
of 1824. 

Illinois commenced its existence as a State in a period 
of financial striniiencv and "hard times." About the time 
it was admitted into the Union a general failure of western 
banks occurred, with the result that their paper currency, 
which for some time had been the only circulating medium 
in the Territory, depreciated until it was almost valueless, 
leaving- the country practically without money sufficient 
for ordinarv transaction of business. That wa.s the first 
experience of the young State with broken banks; but, un- 
fortunately, by no means the last. There followed in con- 
sequence a ruinous depreciation in values of all kinds of 
property, particularly of farm products. Wheat sold for 
only thirty-five or forty cents per bushel, corn ten cents, 
hogs were worth but seventy-five cents, or a dollar per 
hundred weight, cows with calves five or six dollars each, 
and horses from twenty to forty dollars. 

However, there were soon evidences of a rebound from 
that state of depression. The immense area of land of 
extraordinary fertility, containing in its soil elements of 
untold riches constituted the reacting force. The low price 
of land and its productions, and promising future of the 
new prairie State, had the effect of largely increasing im- 
migration, that daily poured into it, especially from the 
southern States. The new-comers relieved the situation of 
affairs somewhat by bringing into the settlements, with 
industry and enterprise, more or less sound money and 
portable property; thus contributing materially to the 
general wealth and prosperity of the country. Rut to the 
application of steam power in river navigation is due. as 
-3 



34 

much as to any other cause, the marvelous progress and 
development of Illinois following" the change in its form 
of government. Simultaneously with that change was in- 
troduced on the ]\Iississippi the new motive power destined 
to revolutionize the commercial and economic life of the 
west — as well as that of the entire Avorld. 

Previous to that time western commerce was little more 
than a system of barter. All goods and supplies not pro- 
duced in the west were brought from the Atlantic states 
in w^agons, or down the Ohio river and up the Mississippi 
and from New Orleans, in flat or keel boats, propelled by 
oars and poles, or towed with ropes by human strength. 
Those imports purchased by the settlers were paid for 
with skins and furs of Avild animals, beeswax, feathers and 
other products of the country. Immigration was then 
mostly by wagons over roads often rendered impassable 
by mud and water. The increased facilities for transpor- 
tation by steamboats, not only greatly augmented the influx 
of population, but opened new and distant markets for 
agricultural products, thereby enhancing their value. 

It was as late as 1827 when the first steamboat— the Me- 
chanic — cautiously ascended the Illinois River to Fort 
Clark on Peoria Lake, and returned in safety to St. Louis. 
In 1825, or 1826, a steam engine was taken from a wrecked 
boat in the Ohio and placed in a grist mill at Shawnee- 
town; and, in 1828, Thomas Harrison remodeled his mill 
at Belleville, substituting a steam engine for the discarded 
treadwheel and ox power. The experiments of running 
mills by steam proving successful, that motive power grad- 
ually displaced ox and horse mills throughout the State; 
though a few horse and water mills survived to later 
times. 

The introduction of' steam engines in mills and factories 
developed a new industry, that of coal mining, and coal 
was soon discovered to be a new and vast source of wealth, 
and a factor in the growth and improvement of the State 
of the first importance. 



35 

The act of Congress admitting' Illinois into the Union 
as a State was passed on the 28d of November, 1818. In 
anticipation of that action, and to perfect tlie machinery 
of the new State government, an election was held, on 
the 17th, 18tli and 19th of September, for a Governor, 
Lieutenant Governor, members of the General Assembly, 
and a representative in the lower house of Congress to serve 
during the short, or second, session of the Fifteenth Con- 
gress that expired on the 3d of March following. For the 
latter place but two candidates offered at that election, 
John ]\IcLean and Daniel P. Cook, both intellectual giants 
and lawyers of superior, well-matched, ability and extra- 
ordinary eloquence. ]\IcLean, tall, large and of majestic 
stature, was born in North Carolina in 1791. Cook, small, 
thin and pale, was a native of Kentucky, born in 1794. 
iMcLean resided in Shawneetown, Cook in Kaskaskia. Their 
contest was short but spirited, resulting in ^McLean's suc- 
cess by the slender majority of 14 votes. But he won, with 
the office, the distinction of being the first representative 
of the 8taie of Illinois in Congress. 

At the first session of the State Legislature— which was 
also the last held in Kaskaskia — a bill was passed early in 
1819 providing for removal of the State capital from Kas- 
kaskia to Vandalia. There was no demand for that change 
at that time by the people, or by any public exigency. It 
was premature and unnecessary, and was concocted and 
consummated by a lot of speculators who expected to reap 
large profits in building up the new capitol at Reeves' Bluff, 
about eighty miles further up the Kaskaskia river.* Ap- 
proval of that legislative measure by Governor Shadrach 
Bond and his Council of revision sealed the doom of Kas- 
kaskia. Robbed of the State capitol it lost its prestige and 
importance and was consigned to rapid decline and decay. 

* The State archives were removed from Kaskaskia to Vandalia 
in a small wagon in December. 1820, in charge of Sidney Breese. who 
was then chief clerk in the Secretary of State's office. The cost of 
removal was $25, and time consumed nearly a week, as a road had 
to be opened in places by cutting a way through the woods and 
brush. 



36 

The romantic story of the old town will always possess 
for American historians a fascinatins" charm and interest. 
Beginning as an Indian mission, in the midst of a vast and 
unknown Avilderness, two and a third centuries ago, it for 
many years was a busy metropolis of the French empire in 
America ; then wrested from France by the English in 
1763, it was subsequently delivered from British dominion 
and restored to libertv by Col. Clark, who added it to the 
new-born republic, and in 1809 it became the territorial 
capitol of Illinois. For a century and a quarter it was the 
most noted town in the i\Iississippi valley, and its commer- 
cial emporium. It was made the capital of a sovereign 
State of the Union in 1818, only to be hastily abandoned 
and humiliated at the behest of unscrupulous schemers, 
and, finally, in ruins and forgotten, it was swept away by 
the relentless current of the great river heedless of its past 
renown. 

But few vestiges of old Kaskaskia remain. It is gone, 
but the spot where it stood, with the site of Fort Chartres 
near by, is — to the historian — hallowed ground, consecrated 
by memories of its storied glory and vicissitudes. 

The bill authorizing admission of Illinois into the Union 
passed the lower house of congress November 23, 1818, by 
117 votes for and 34 aganst it. The chief objection of those 
voting in the negative was that the constitution of the pro- 
posed State did not prohibit slavery with sufficient posi- 
tiveness. 

Illinois had but obtained Congressional sanction for State- 
hood, when the application of Missouri Territory for admis- 
sion as a slave state fanned into a blaze of excitement 
throughout the country the semi-dormant slavery question. 
The turmoil of discussion and heated controversy that fol- 
lowed ]\Iissouri's action, in and out of Congress, profoundly 
impressed the politics and politicians of Illinois, and exerted 
a perturbing influence in some of its elections. It was 
necessary in 1819 to elect another Congressman to succeed 
John McLean, whose term expired on the 3d of March. 



37 

Cook and McLean were again candidates for the place. 
Having' no political issnes and parties to rally to, the people 
divided into factions, led by one or more prominent favor- 
ites, who competed with each other simply for the offices. 

Daniel P. Cook was not an Abolitionist. The charge that 
he was would have been vehemently resented by him. No 
public man in Illinois at that day dared admit that he 
favored the abolition of slavery. Cook was opposed to dis- 
turbing the institution of slavery where it existed, and also 
opposed to its introduction into states or territories where 
it did not exist. ]\IcLean advocated the doctrine of the 
constitutional right of states and territories to regulate 
their domestic institutions as they saw proper. Cook Avas 
the candidate of the Gov. EdAvards faction ; McLean that of 
the partisans of Gov. Bond and Senator Thomas. 

Adam W. Snyder, that summer but nineteen years of age, 
was busily employed at wool carding, giving such attention 
to his studies as the exacting duties of his work permitted. 
He, no doubt, desired the election of IMcLean, and would 
liave voted for him had he had the right of sutit'rage ; but his 
interest in the elections extended no farther than to favor 
and aid, if possible, the success of friends who were sup- 
ported by Judge Thomas. No ambition for public life— 
or knowledge of it — then troubled him ; and not for several 
years later did he become haunted by the ignis fatuus of 
political aspirations. Intent only upon qualifying himself 
for the legal profession, he applied himself so assidiously 
and exclusively to the means for attaining that end that 
he had neither time nor inclination to take an active part 
in the campaign. Yet, he was so constituted that it was 
with great difficulty he could ever maintain a neutral posi- 
tion upon any subject admitting differences of opinions, 
and when required to express his views he stated them 
frankly and without hesitation. He favored the election 
of ^IcLean, and said so; but was not a voter or a politician, 
and did not presume to attempt influencing the views of 
olhers. However, his intelligent grasp of public questions 



38 

and estimate of public men, together with his manly deport- 
ment and nnreserved, social disposition gave his opinions 
some weight in that community. For the native inhabi- 
tants of Cahokia and the American bottom, though unedu- 
cated, appreciated his worth and integrity of character and, 
that early, gave him their confidence and friendship, which 
he retained through life. 

In the chaotic condition of politics for several years after 
Illinois Avas admitted into the Union, before voters learned 
to range themselves in parties, they were divided into fac- 
tions, and advocated "men, not measures." Nevertheless, 
the question of slavery influenced many in their preference 
for, or opposition to, men who sought office. There was no 
discussion of slavery upon its merits per se ; its extension 
in Illinois, and in the territories, was the only phase of the 
institution considered, and presented the only semblance of 
an issue at electons. 

John Reynolds w^as then a justice of the supreme court 
of the State. A proper appreciation of the independence 
and dignitv of that honorable station, and a decent sense 
of self-respect should have restrained him from participat- 
ing in the contentions of factions. The tenure of his judge- 
ship, however, was limited to six years, and already he was 
pi aiming to secure another office at the expiration of his 
term, or before, if anything came in his reach better suited 
to his order of talents than the judiciary. He was radi- 
cally pro slavery, but pandered to Gov. Edwards and his 
prospective son-in-law. Judge Cook, the freesoiler, not be- 
cause of any harmony of principles, or from any personal 
affection for either; for he disliked them both as cordially 
as he did Bond, ]McLean or Thomas. But Gov. Edwards, 
he thought, was politically invincible, and wielded power 
that possibly could, in time, be made serviceable to him- 
self, w^hile the overthrow of ]\IcLean and Thomas, he 
imagined, would remove formidable obstacles from the 
path of his own future aspirations. Besides that selfish 
consideration, he could not resist the constant propensity, 



39 

ingrained in his nature, to meddle in all popular or poli- 
tical alt'airs, though himself not directly interested in 
their issue. In that congressional contest there was no 
occasion whatever that he, a supreme court judge, should 
be an active partisan of either candidate; but to win the 
favor of Gov. Edwards, he wrote to him as follows: 

^'Goshen, 19 July, 1819. 
' ' Dear Sir : ' 

"I have returned from Greene County, and found mat- 
ters and things right there. Cook, with the exception of 
Lofton's settlement, will get all the votes. I think he will 
get three-fourths of the county. IMcLean has turned Cum- 
mins. Caldwell, I understand is for Cook. My brother 
Thomas states that i\Iaxwell, James IMorrison, old Robert 
and their dependents are Avorking against Cook. Phillips 
is the cause of this. ]\Iy brother says that Bro\\ne, on the 
Ohio, was McLean's friend, and the people there is con- 
siderably^ for jMcLean. I thought it would not be amiss to 
inform you of the above. 

"Jones, you see, is out. I promised him your support, 
as you said. Now allow me to request you to start Steph- 
enson in the chase. Winchester promised nie; so did some 
in the old town. Judy and all my friends are on the 
charge for Jones. Do not forget to impress Hays with 
the necessity of staying in Cahokia at the election. Snyder 
will try to turn the French for IMcLean. This must not 
be neglected. 

"Col. John W. Scott's brother, Alexander, wants to get 
the mail to carry from Edwardsville to Carrollton. I prom- 
ised to mention the thing to you. If there is no applicant 
or bidder he could do the business. 

"I am your friend, 

"John Reynolds.* 
Hon. Xinian Edwards, Edwardsville." 



■i i 



Senator Edwards was then at the zenith of his popu- 

* Edwards Papers., Fergus Co., Chicago. 1S84, p. 163. 



40 

)arity. His great intellectual ability, and national reputa- 
tion for statesmanship of a high order, placed him so 
prominently before the people of the whole country that 
public rumor at Washington City assigned him a position 
—that of Secretary of War— in President Monroe's second 
cabinet. In the political aifairs of Illinois his authority 
was supreme. Servile office seekers were proud of the 
privilege to address him as "your friend," and willingly 
obeyed his mandates. 

The foregoing truckling letter was eminently charac- 
teristic of Reynolds. Its object Avas not only to curry 
favor of Senator Edwards by impressing upon him his 
personal loyalty and the value of his political services, 
but, at the same time, to prejudice the Senator against 
his (Reynolds') colleagues on the supreme bench. Justices 
Phillips and BroAvne, also against Snyder. The fear he 
expressed that "Snyder will try to turn the French for 
McLean," whether sincere or not, was certainly very com- 
plimentary to that young man. 

Agitation of slavery disturbed the French inhabitants 
of Illinois but little. They were divided upon that ques- 
tion, a limited number of them owning slaves desired slav- 
ery to be made permanent in the State; but the non-slave- 
holding, and more numerous, class, while^ willing to tol- 
erate the qualified institution as it then existed in Illinois, 
favored its gradual extinction, and opposed giving it A^dder 
scope by the introduction of more slaves. 

At the Congressional election, in August, 1819, IMr. 
Cook's majority over McLean was 633; and that result Avas 
a fair index of popular sentiment in Illinois at the time 
on the slavery issue, indirectly presented. The fact that 
slavery was specifically excluded from the Northwestern 
Territory — including Illinois— by the ordinance of 1787, 
was a weighty consideration among the inducements that 
brought to the prairies of Illinois the greater number of 
its new settlers, while the knowledge that Missouri Terri- 
tory, included in the Territory of Louisiana in which slav- 



41 

ery was already recognized before its acquisition by the 
United States, and would probably be retained by ^lissouri 
when admitted as a state, induced a large preponderance 
of pro-slavery emigrants from the south to shun Illinois 
and seek homes west of the Mississippi River. 

The year 1820 was memorable in the personal history 
of Adam AV. Snyder. In February of that year he was 
admitted to the bar, though not yet of the statutory age 
entitling him to the right of sutfrage, and he commenced 
at once, in a modest waj^, the practice of law in Cahokia. 
As the only practicing lawyer in the old town, he monop- 
olized the legal business there ; but it was, for all that, not 
very remunerative, as litigation was confined to probate 
adjustments and petty cases of breaches of the peace. All 
the practice in the courts of St. Clair County then, with 
occasional exceptions, would not have rapidly enriched 
two opposing lawj^ers, or severely taxed their time. Then, 
too, the litigants, as a rule, were poor and unable to pay 
attorneys more than nominal fees; and, at that, payments, 
were made in depreciated p^per currency or country pro- 
duce. However, the lawver with business tact and some 
capital, or credit, could enlarge his income by dealing in 
real estate ; as buying lands and land claims, and selling 
them to incoming settlers at advanced prices, was then, 
and for many years later, a profitable traffic if shrewdly 
conducted. 

One of Attorney Snyder's first clients, after his admis- 
sion to the bar, was the Avidow Pensoneau, of Prairie du 
Pont, a hamlet a mile south of Cahokia, whose husband had 
recently died. That lady, then forty-three years of age, 
had been twice married. Her maiden name was Adelaide 
Saucier, and she was the' daughter of Captain John Bap- 
tiste Saucier, an officer of the engineer corps of the French 
army, who designed the plans, and superintended con- 
struction of Fort Charters in 1751-1763. She was a na- 
tive of Cahokia and was married, in 17.97, to Jean Francois 
Perry, a young Frenchman of wealth and education, who 



42 

inigrate^d to America from his birth place near the city of 
Lyons, in France, and who died at his home, in Prairie 
dn Pont, in 1812.* At his death Mr. Perry left, with his 
widow and three daughters, a large landed estate. In 1815 
Mrs. Perry married Augustine Pensoneau, a Canadian 
Frenchman, and was again left a widow by his death in 
the fall of 1819, with two additional children. The elder 
of the Perry girls, Louise, had married and died; the 
other two, Adelaide and Harriet, were quite handsome and 
sprightly, with faultless figures, and ranked with the most 
attractive belles in the parish. 

Pensoneau left no property at his death ; but the Perry 
•estate required the services of an attorney for its manage- 
ment. That business seems to have demanded the fre- 
quent presence of Lawyer Snyder at the Perry homestead. 
Before the summer was passed his. visits there recurred 
so often that observant gossips concluded he was probably 
more interested in the elder of the two daughters than in 
any legal proceedings he may have been conducting for 
Madam Pensoneau in either the probate court, or that of 
Judge Reynolds. 

The population of Illinois had increased from 34,620 
in 1818, to 55,162 in 1820. At the general election in 
August, 1820, Daniel P. Cook was again a candidate for 
Congress, and was opposed by Elias Kent Kane, whom he 
defeated by the surprising majority of 2,482 in a total of 
less than 8,000 votes, Mr. Kane carrying but one county 
in the State. In that campaign there appeared no intima- 
tion from any quarter that Mr. Snyder would ''try to turn 
the French" for Mr. Kane. He was too fully occupied 
with his own affairs to meddle with those in which he had 
no direct personal interest. 

His profession, in which he Avas but a novice, claimed 
his attention and time, and an engagement of a tender 
nature he had contracted occupied his thoughts to a far 
greater degree than the outcome of any election. 

* See Appendix, Note B. 



43 

The happy culmination of that engagement was his 
union in marriage to ]\Iiss Adelaide Perry, at Prairie du 
Pont, on the 18tli of October, 1820. At the date of that 
important event his age was twenty-one years and twelv^e 
days; and that of his bride seventeen' years, eight months 
and twenty-five days. They were a young and handsome 
pair, representative types of different races, contrasting 
widely in temperament, disposition and mental character- 
istics. His blueish-gray eyes and fair complexion clearly 
marked his Saxon descent. She was a brunette with glossy 
black hair, black eyes and dark complected; five feet, six 
inches m stature, perfectly formed, erect and active, and 
possessing the mercurial traits of her Latin ancestry. 

Bridal trips for whiling away the honeymoon were then 
unknown that far west; so, they immediately established 
their home in Cahokia, and commenced together the serious 
mission of life. 

The second General Assemblv — the first to meet in Van- 
dalia— elected in August, 1820, convened at the new State 
capitol on the 4th of December, comprising fourteen sena- 
tors and twenty-nine representatives. John jMcLean, who 
was elected to represent Gallatin County in the lower house, 
was, upon its organization, chosen its Speaker. 

The chief act of, the second General Assembly was the 
establishment of a State bank at Vandalia, with branches 
at Shawneetown, Edwardsville and Brownsville, founded 
wholly on credit, without a dollar of capital. It was 
authorized to issue notes of different denominations, bear- 
ing two per cent interest redeemable by the State in ten 
years, and was empowered to loan those notes to the 
people on personal security to the amount of $100,000, and 
to a greater amount on real estate mortgages. A strong 
minority, led by John iMcLean ably opposed that pernicious 
folly. The rules of the house then precluded the Speaker 
from participating in debates excepting when in committee 
of the whole. Fearing IMcLean's influence the majority 
refused to refer the bill to a committee of the whole, where- 



44 

upon he resigiied the Speakership and taking the floor, in 
a speech of wondrous eloquence and force, denounced the 
measure as unconstitutional and wrong in principle, and 
pointing out its many fatal defects, predicted the failure 
of the system if enacted. Under the leadership of Hon. 
Richard ]\I. Young the bill passed and was promptly ve- 
toed by the Council of Revision, and again passed by a 
constitutional majority of both houses. 

So elated was the bank party in the Legislature with 
their success they passed a resolution instructing the Illi- 
nois Senators and Representatives in Congress to endeavor 
to secure an act of Congress authorizing the land offices in 
Illinois to receive the notes of the State bank in payment 
for land entries. It was when that resolution was sub- 
mitted to a vote of the Senate and carried, Pierre Menard, 
Lieutenant Governor, presiding, remarked: ''Gentlemen of 
de Senate ; de resolution is carried ; but I will bet a hundred 
dollar dat Congra never make him land office money." 

The relief afforded the people by enactments of the 
second General Assembly was— as predicted by Mr. Mc 
Lean — but temporary, and the unwise measures soon re- 
acted with disastrous effect. The State bank, and its 
branches, commenced business in the summer of 1821, and 
in a short time had loaned to the people its notes to the 
amount of $300,000 without nmcli regard as to the security 
taken. Not long after, the paper money— for that is all 
it Avas — began to depreciate. It fell twenty-five cents below 
par, then fifty cents, then seventy-five cents. All specie 
had long ago been driven out of the country, and in the 
absence of small coins the bank bills were cut in two, or 
more, pieces to make change. Taking refuge behind the 
stay laws (passed by the same Legislature), but few made 
the least effort to pay their debts, and the majority of 
those who borrowed from the bank did so with the deliber- 
ate intention of never repaying it. There is always, in all 
communities, a large class of people commendably honest 
in their ordinary dealings and business transactione^ who 



45 

have 110 scruples whatever in swindling' the government 
or State, or town in which they live ; and regard defraud- 
ing a corporation as legitimate, and evidence of superior 
financial skill. The patrons of the State bank were largely 
of that class. 

In 1822, ]\Ir. Snyder received, without solicitation on his 
part, the appointment of Prosecuting Attorney for the 
first judicial district. He served in that capacity for one 
vear and then resigned it for the reason that in criminal 
practice he much preferred the defense of offenders against 
the laws than their prosecution — because the former paid 
best. 

Popular feeling and interest Avere much enlisted in the 
campaign preceding the general election of 1822, as the 
question of slavery was then more directly in issue than 
at any previous election. Edward Coles was then elected 
Governor to succeed Shadrach Bond, over three competitors, 
namely, Joseph Phillips and Thomas C. Browne, Justices 
of the Supreme Court, and Capt. James B. Moore, who 
had served with distinction in the war of 1812, and was 
a noted Indian fighter. Gov. Coles received 2,854 votes; 
Phillips, 2,687; Browne, 2,443, and Capt. Moore, 622, 
Coles, though a Virginian, was an Abolitionist. Judge Phil- 
lips and Browne were pro-slavery in sentiment, and Capt. 
^loore was opposed to slavery in Illinois, but not regarded 
as an Abolitionist. 

Coles was therefore a minority Governor, as the united 
votes of the pro-slavery element in the State would have 
overwhelminglv defeated him. 

Gov. Coles was intensely distasteful to the older pioneers 
of southern birth who believed Abolitionism to be the un- 
pardonable sin; and they loathed him as a renegade from 
the faith accepted as orthodox in his native state and the 
south. Having come to Illinois only three years before 
with the federal appointment of register of the land office 
at Edwardsville, Ihey looked upon him contemptuously 
as a carpetbagger and adventurer, as Gov. Closes was 



46 

regarded by the old patricians of South Carolina in 
the reconstruction era. During his residence of twelve 
years in Illinois he did not succeed in overcoming that 
popular prejudice entertained by a large class of citizens^ 
and was never recognized as an Illinoisan. 

He met with stormy opposition all through his adminis- 
tration, manifested in many instances by personal enmity 
and social ostracism, and vindictiveness carried so far as 
the Avanton destruction of his propert3\ On his Avay to 
Illinois from his Virginia home, in 1819, he dramatically 
emancipated his twenty-six slaves on their flat boat when 
descending the Ohio River. Arriving with them at Ed- 
wardsville he settled them on farms in ]\Iadison County, 
giving to each head of a family a quarter section of land. 
That Avas the head and front of his offending. He wielded 
all his personal and official influence, and donated his en- 
tire salary for four years, to save Illinois from the blight- 
ing curse of human slavery attempted to be fastened on 
the State during the first half of his administration. Yet, 
he attracted no personal following, and was not known as 
a leader in the memorable free soil movement for which 
he made so many sacrifices and did such efficient service 
in successfully establishing. 

Edward Coles had received a finished education, and 
Avas a gentleman of polished manners and irreproachable 
character. For six years he had been in close personal 
relations with President ]\Iadison, as his private secretary, 
and Avas sent by the President on a delicate diplomatic mis- 
sion to Russia that he conducted in a highly satisfactory 
manner. On his return he A^sited Kaskaskia in 1818, and 
the next year decided to remoA^e to Illinois. In 1830 he 
ran for congress, as an anti-Jackson candidate, against 
Joseph Duncan and Sidney Breese, both Jackson men. 
Duncan Avas elected by a very large majority, Goy. Coles 
receiAdng but meagre support. After that humiliating 
defeat he left Illinois and located in Philadelphia, Pa., 
AA'here, on the 28th of November, 1833, he married Miss 



47 

Sally Roberts; and there died on the 7th of July, 1868.. 
Coles County, in Illinois, was properly and very fittingly 
so named in his honor when organized on the 25th of De- 
cember, 1830. 

Daniel P. Cook and John McLean were again, for the 
third time, opposing candidates for congress in 182*2 ; and 
Cook Avas again successful, receiving 4,764 votes, to 3,811 
for McLean. 

The third General Assembly met at Vandal ia en the 2d 
of December, 1822, with the recently elected Lieutenant 
Governor, Adolphus Frederick Hubbard, in the chair of 
the Senate, and AVilliam M. Alexander chosen Speaker of 
the house. 

Justice John Reynolds was there also "in the hands 
of his friends" as a candidate for LTnited States Sena.tor 
in opposition to Senator Jesse B. Thomas. Six days later, 
Dec. 8th, Judge Reynolds wrote to Senator Ninian Ed- 
wards, then in Washington City, as folloAvs: 

"My Friend: We are now in a turmoil concerning the 
senatorial election. Judge Thomas has his friends from 
all parts urging his pretentions— Kitchell, McLean, Bond, 
Kane, etc., are his night supporters. I think without boast- 
ing that we will succeed. The election will be delayed, I 
think, until spring. I can keep it off in the senate. Now, 
on this plan, I want you to co-operate in hastening the 
appointment of the land offices, so that our fellow citizens 
may not many of them be deceived. The disappointed 
people will kick up. Kinney wants the contract ; he is alive 
on his head. A line to him would fix him. He leans for 
Thomas. White, you know his situation. This is a deli- 
cate matter, treat it as you please. Some members want 
Loclavood to offer. If Ave are all reconciled, Thomas goes 
out. Judge Pope is among us. I have powerful friends 
here in and out of the Legislature. I must succeed if the 
election be delayed. I want to harmonize with Lockwood 
and his friends. I have told them to run the strongest 
man. I want you for the good of the cause to urge, by 



48 

all means, the filling of the offices. This I can handle to 
advantage. l*lease show thjs to Judge Cook. Your fam- 
ily Avas well the other day. I am now anxious to beat. 

"Your friend, 

"John Reynolds."*' 

The explanation of his references to the land offices, and 
his urgent desire that Senator Edwards— who he imagined 
President Monroe favored more than he did Senator 
Thomas — would cause the appointments to be made at 
once, and his plan to have the Senatorial election in the 
Legislature delayed until after those appointments Avere 
made, is quite apparent. The two Illinois Senators were 
leaders of opposing factions at home, and not in harmony 
in the matter of patronage for their state. Reynolds knew 
that each had recommended for appointment to those of- 
fices his own factional friends and adherents, several of 
whom were then members of the Legivslature, or very influ- 
ential lobbyists there. If then, he could succeed in post- 
poning the Senatorial election until the Edwards hench- 
men secured the federal offices the disappointed Thomas 
applicants Avould "kick up" and in retaliation turn to 
his support. 

Judge Thomas remained at his post in Washington, 
but his interests at Vandalia were in the care of active 
men who well understood Reynolds, and out-generaled him 
at every point. Ex-Gov. Bond, and other Thomas men, 
were appointed to the land offices, the Senatorial election 
was not deferred to a future time to suit Judge Reynolds, 
but, by joint resolution, was held on the 9th of January,- 
1823, resulting in the re-election of Judge Thomas, who 
received 29 votes to 16 for Reynolds, 6 for White and 2 
for Lockwood, a majoritv of 5 for Thomas over all. 

Senator Edwards no doubt desired the defeat of Thomas, 
but not by Reynolds, whose aspirations to the Senate he 
regarded as ludicrous. 

* Edwards Papers, pp. 203-204. 



49 

At the opening of the third General Assembly, Dec. 2d, 
1822, Gov. Coles delivered his message orally, recommend- 
ing establishing common schools and the great importance 
of connecting the Illinois River and Lake Michigan by 
canal, a suggestion reiterated in the message of every 
succeeding Governor, and discussed by all politicians and 
every Legislature for the next quarter of a century. He 
then broached the burning question of the day, deploring 
the fact that slavery still existed in Illinois, notwithstand- 
ing its special prohibition by the ordinance of 1787, and 
earnestly advised the Legislature to abolish it. Thus, at 
the beginning, Gov. Coles boldly threw down the gauntlet 
in defiance of the large majority in the Legislature who, 
he knew, were hostile to him and who thought the State 
disgraced by the foisting of a Virginia Abolitionist in the 
executive chair by a contemptible minority. 

The reference to slavery in his message was referred 
to a special committee whose majority reported a resolution 
for calling a convention to remedy certain alleged defects 
in the State constitution; but in reality to change it so 
as to make Illinois a slave State. That resolution was car- 
ried by the required two-thirds vote, by ousting a member 
who was opposed to it, but had voted for Senator Thomas, 
and seating, in liis place, a contestant who would have 
voted against Senator Thomas, but favored the convention. 
The convention scheme thus adopted was yet to be sub- 
mitted to the people at the next general election two years 
hence. 

The Governor's recommendations to the solons relative 
to the canal met with little more favor than did his advice 
to extinguish slavery. A bill offered in the Senate propos- 
ing a survey of the canal route was opposed by several 
members from the southern counties, who looked upon 
the canal as purely a local enterprise not calculated to 
benefit their section of the state. Senator Kinney, of St. 
Clair County, was against the bill, because the waterway 
to the lakes if completed "would be the' means of letting 
-4 



50 

into the state a lot of blue-bellied Yankees," and to defeat 
it moved to amend the bill by making an appropriation to 
drain certain lakes in the American Bottom alleged to be 
the source of unhealthiness to the people. Other members 
from the southern counties loaded the bill down with 
amendments to drain every considerable pond in southern 
Illinois, until linally an amendment was incorporated ap- 
propriating several thousand dollars to drain Lake IMichi- 
gan, which proved fatal to further consideration of the 
canal at that session. 

Mr. Snyder did not particularly interest himself in the 
convention question that convulsed the Legislature after 
the Senatorial election. Nor did he permit himself to be 
drawn into the whirlpool of furious commotion that fol- 
lowed and kept the public in an ebulition of frenzied ex- 
citement for the first half of Gov. Coles' administration. 
More enthusiastic in his profession than in politics he found 
more pleasant and profitable occupation by attending the 
courts in the several counties of his district, extending his 
acquaintance among the people, and gaining experience 
and learning by contact with the best lawyers of Illinois 
and Missouri. There are no means now for ascertaining 
how he voted upon the convention question at the election 
on the 2d of August, 1824 ; but it is a reasonable presump- 
tion that he cast his vote for the convention, following the 
leadership of his friend, Senator Thomas. 

As before stated, a decided majority of the people of 
Illinois at that time were opposed to perpetuating the curse 
of slavery in the State. The convention scheme had not 
been concocted prior to the election of the Legislature in 
1822; or, if then projected by the leading slavery propa- 
gandists, the fact was not made public. Consequently 
many of the representatives in the General Assembly who 
supported the convention resolution, not elected upon that 
issue, but by reason of their personal merits and popular- 
ity, did not, in that action correctly represent their con- 
stituents. When directly confronted Avith the question, the 



51 

people, understanding clearly the intent and purpose of 
the proposed convention, emphatically repudiated it by 
castinix, at the polls in 1824, 6,640 votes against its adoption 
to 4,972 in its favor. The intense interest felt by the people 
in the question involved in that election is evidenced by 
the extraordinaiy number of votes cast, 11,612. At the 
presidential election three months later there Avere polled 
in the entire State but 4,707 votes. Of that number John 
Quincy Adams received 1,541; Andrew Jackson, 1,273; 
Henry Clay, 1,047, and William II. Crawford, 218. 

Daniel P. Cook was again elected to Congress at the 
August election, defeating ex-Gov. Bond by the majority 
of 3,086. In St. Clair County, at the same election, Judge 
John Reynolds and Risdon j\loore, Jr., convention men, 
were defeated for the lower house of the Legislature and 
also William Kinney for re-election to the Senate, by anti- 
convention men. In that county three anti-convention 
representatives were elected to the lower house of the 
Legislature, by the following vote : 

Risdon Moore 534* Risdon Moore, Jr 447 

David Blackwell 519 John Reynolds 438 

Abram Eyman 525 John Scott 430 

John Hays 10 

* Risdon Moore who was elected was anti-slavery and the cousin of 
Risdon Moore, Jr., defeated, and pro-slavery. 



. CHAPTER III. 

Mr. Snyder embarks in farming — Life on the farm — Anecdote — The 
Sugar Loaf settlement — Visit of General de LaFayette — Rise of 
the Jackson party — Election of Gov. Edwards and defeat of Daniel 
P. Cook — The fifth General Assembly. 

A few years of diligent effort and assiduous attention 
to his profession convinced ^Ir. Snyder that, there and 
then, the accumulation of wealth by practice of law alone 
was, if not utterly hopeless, at least very unpromising. 
He saw in Cahokia no other branch of business or industry 
he could engage in, combined with his law practice, that 
would materially increase his revenue, and he had not yet 
come to look upon politics as the only sure avenue to riches 
and distinction. On mature deliberation he concluded 
to leave the village and embark in farming. He had ac- 
quired a tract of fine land lying five miles south of Ca- 
hokia, and resolutely commenced there preparations for 
establishing a new home and a new occupation. His land 
was partly open prairie on the American Bottom, a mile 
Avest of the high abrupt point of the bluffs, locally known 
as the '^' Sugar Loaf," near the dividing line between the 
counties of St. Clair and Monroe. 

That noted landmark derived its name from a conical 
Indian mound on the high peak of the rocky bluff, erected 
there presumably as a signal station, by prehistoric abor- 
igines. The American Bottom comprises the level alluvial 
district between the IMississippi River and its eastern range 
of bluff's, extending from Alton to Chester, eighty miles 
in length, and varying from four to seven miles in width. 
Its soil, of unknown depth, is unsurpassed for fertility by 
that of any region of equal extent on earth, and is perco- 
lated beneath by perfectly pure w^ater in inexhaustible 
quantity. 

The first settlement of the Avhite— or intrusive— race in 
Illinois having been made upon that plain by the French, 



53 

it should, in justice, have received the name of the "French 
Bottom." 

In 1782, the ]\Ioores, Piggotts, Rntherfords, Lunsfords, 
Garrisons, Bonds, and a tew other "Americans," who had 
served as soldiers of Col. George Rogers Clark's little army, 
came into it and with their families settled near the foot of 
the bluffs in sight of the Sugar Loaf.* They were styled 
Americans, bv the French, in contradistinction to their 

7 %, 7 

recent rulers, the English ; aiid the particular locality of 
their settlement was known to the natives as the American's 
Bottom. That name Avas extended Avith the gradual ex- 
pansion of American settlements there until it included the 
entire Bottom. 

Another race of people had long possessed that region 
prior to the intrusion of either French or Americans, and 
having vanished, in times past were replaced by their 
degenerate descendants, or roving kinsmen, whom the Can- 
adians found there on their arrival. The occupancy of that 
territory by prehistoric Indians for a great length of time 
is well attested by the presence of numerous earthen 
monuments, or mounds, and many imperishable remains 
of their arts. Mound building was practiced there in high- 
est perfection ; and, in numbers and dimensions, the mounds 
of the American Bottom are not exceeded by those in any 
equal area in the ^Mississippi Valley. At the northern end 
of the Bottom stands the majestic Cahokia mound on the 
south bank of Cahokia creek, the largest artificial eleva- 
tion of the kind in the United States. In form it is a 
truncated pyramid 97 feet in height, with a level summit 
three acres in extent. Its base is 700 feet in length by 
500 feet in width, and it is calculated to comprise 1.076,000 
cubic yards of earth, nuicli of which was brought from 
the bluffs three miles distant. From the top of that stu- 
pendous temple mound, in pioneer days, before the virgin 
soil of the Bottom was defiled by railroad grading and 
levee building, 61 other mounds were in the range of 

* Reynolds' Pioneer History of Illinois, p. 113. 



54 

vision, varying in magnitude from 100 to 400 feet in diam- 
eter at the ground level, and in altitude from 15 to 60 
feet. Some of them Avere also pyramidal in form, but the 
greater number were circular, oval or oblong. Mounds 
of the same character are scattered, here and there, down 
the entire extent of the Bottom to the Kaskaskia River. 

When the "Americans" bes^an to settle in the Bottom 
thev occasionallv found those ancient tumuli of their by- 
gone predecessors convenient elevations upon which to place 
their farm residences, and so utilized them.* And thai 
Mr. Snyder also did. On his land was situated one of the 
many large Indian burial mounds of the Bottom about 30 
feet in height, with circular base 200 feet in diameter,, 
exactlv where he desired to build his house. On the south 
side of that venerable old tomb he caused an excavation 
to be made sufficiently wide and deep for the cellar and 
basement story of his building. The house was so planned 
that the floor of the upper story was a foot or two above 
the level of the mound's summit, on which the front door 
—protected by a spacious veranda— opened to the north, 
looking upon a broad view of the Bottom skirted on the 
east by the picturesque line of bluffs and on the Avest 
by the rocky cliffs of Missouri, Avith occasional glimpses 
of the Mississippi at their base. Little, or nothing, Avas 
knoAvn of American archaeology AA'hen that great earthen 
sepulchre Avas ruthlessly desecrated by vandals of an ad- 
vanced race, exposing the decayed human skeletons, over 
which it Avas erected, associated AAdth stone implements, 
and other art remains, deposited there in the unknoAA^n 
past, Avith superstitious veneration, by a rude primitive 
people AA'hose only history is thus recorded. The crumbling 
bones of their dead, Avitli shell and bone orifaments, finely 
Avrought objects in stone and .copper, and elegant pottery 
vases— tokens of respect and affection — laid there with 
de\^otional reverence to remain in undisturbed security for 
all time, excited but momentary curiosity among the labor- 

* Reynolds' Pioneer History of Illinois, p. 115. 



55 

ers and bystanders, and were throw^n aside as so much • 
worthless rubbish. 

Though the soil of the American Bottom is loose sandy 
loam, its preparation for cultivation required much per- 
sistent labor. A great deal of the preliminary work neces- 
sary to convert the wild prairie and wood lands into a fit 
habitation for man was done in the summer and fall of 
1824. The bricks for construction of the dwelling were 
molded and burned near the big spring at the foot of 
the Sugar Loaf bluff, wells Avere dug and walled up with 
stone, and building materials were brought together at 
the large mound. Before the year closed the brick walls of 
the house Avere up and covered with a substantial roof 
of cedar shingles; a barn and other outhouses were built; 
rails were made in the timber near by; patches of crab 
apple, persimmon and hazel thickets were cleared off, and 
the ground made ready for the plow. Rail making con- 
tinued through the A\dnter months and some of the fencing 
was put in place. 

In the spring of 1825 the house was finished, and is still 
standing (1902) in good state of preservation, but little 
changed in external appearance since it Avas abandoned 
bv its builder in 1833. In the earlv summer following 
Mr. Snyder brought his household from Cahokia to the 
farm and began the labors of a practical agriculturist. 
Himself, Avife and her half-brother, Augustine Pensoneau, 
a child scarcely six years old, constituted his family. His 
tAvo children born in Cahokia had died there in early in- 
fancy. To some of his energetic neighbors he ga\"e em-' 
ployment in "breaking" his land Avith their large ploAvs 
draAvn by several yokes of oxen, at a stipulated price per 
acre. To cultivate the land after it Avas ploAved, and raise 
crops he depended upon hired hands, readily obtained, 
but not invariably reliable. The progress of society in 
the Avest had not yet evolved the hired girl. In the democ- 
racy of Illinois all Avhite persons Avere supposed to have 
been born free and equal and occupying the same social 



/ 



56 

plane. There was no surplus of female labor in the coun- 
try, and then — as now— the servants' station was not cov- 
eted by the native white girl. 

To surmount the difficulties presented by the labor prob- 
lem, and relieve his wife of the unavoidable drudgery of 
rural housekeeping, Mr. Snyder became a slave-holder. 
At an executor's sale he purchased a middle-aged negro 
man and wife, and from other parties a negro lad twelve 
years of age, and subsequently a mulatto girl a few years 
younger whose sister was owned by Judge John Reynolds. 
The boy and girl were not related to each other or to the 
man and wife. They were all four French slaves and 
natives of Cahokia, or its immediate vicinity. In less than 
two years after the human chattels were acquired the 
negro man, Jeanot, died; the other three remained with 
the family until every vestige of State sanction of slavery 
was removed, in 1847. 

Mr. Snyder gave to his farm all the attention he could 
without neglecting his laAv business. In intervals between 
terms of court he sometimes ' ' made a hand ' ' himself, assist- 
ing in fence making, hauling rails and wood, setting out 
fruit trees, or following the cradlers in the harvest field as 
a binder. 

In one of those industrious moods, one autumn dav in 
1827, he was going to the woods a short distance from the 
house after fence posts, with a wagon drawn by a pair of 
oxen. In the empty wagon bed he had placed his (then) 
only child, a boy two years old— known in later years as 
Judge William H. Snyder — who often accompanied him 
in his walks, or work, about the farm. He was himself 
walking leisurely a short distance behind the wagon, when 
suddenly the oxen, frightened by some unusual object or 
sound, started off in a brisk run. That terrified the child, 
who began screaming to his father to come to his relief. 
Mr. Snyder seeing the boy's imminent danger of being 
thrown headlong from the jostling wagon, set out at full 
speed to rescue him from his perilous situation, calling 



57 

to the oxen at every step to stop ; but they increased their 
gait instead. Although but ten or a dozen feet behind the 
wagon, by his utmost exertion he could not get a foot 
nearer to it. Running at his best he remained just out of 
reach of the imperiled boy who still yelled to him for help. 
The exasperating race— as ludicrous as that of John Gil- 
pin's— continued until Mr. Snyder was on the verge of ex- 
haustion, when fortunately a neighbor coming that way 
intercepted the "steers" and succeeded in checking their 
mad flight. Mr. Snyder, when relating that incident, al- 
ways declared that the provoking beasts escaped death at 
his hands, then and there, simply because he had no means 
at hand for despatching them. 

Tlis change of residence from the village to the country 
had the effect of increasing rather than diminishing the 
demands for his professional services, until his many and 
various business engagements occupied his entire attention, 
and compelled him to relinquish all personal supervision of 
the farm. During the eight years he remained there he 
prospered financially, and was regarded as one of the mo§t 
prominent citizens in the county. His business became 
more remunerative, and the surplus products of his land 
found ready and profitable markets at St. Louis and 
Jefferson Barracks, the military post three miles west of 
his place. He enjoyed unbounded popularity among the 
people, and Avas often urged to oft'er as a candidate for 
office, but declined to embark in politics then, as he desired 
first to establish himself creditably in the profession of 
law, and also in the acquisition of worldly goods: 

A weighty consideration inducing him to locate upon 
that particular farm was the character of its social sur- 
roundings. That part of the Bottom and adjacent high- 
lands comprised in the radius of a few miles from the 
Sugar Loaf as a center, was settled by an intelligent and 
substantial class of people, before named, who immigrated 
to Illinois from Georgia, Virginia, IMaryland and Pennsyl- 
vania, bringing with them the best stocks of domestic ani- 



58 

mals, and most improved methods of farming then known. 
Thev had established a school in their neighboorhood and 
introduced other accessories of civilization, and Avere op- 
posed to the extension of slavery. Having himself some 
advanced ideas and enlightened views, Mr. Snyder met 
there genial associates and incentives for self -improvement 
that were absent in Cahokia. It was, he correctly judged, 
to his advantage and that of his family, to be situated 
among progressive people of his OAvn race, at the same 
time not depriving his wife of the companionship of her 
people. 

But, notwithstanding the combined favorable conditions 
of intelligent neighbors, soil of exhaustless fertility, pure 
water and proximity to schools and markets, rural life 
there had some very unpleasant features and serious draw- 
backs. Located on the main road from Kaskaskia and 
Waterloo to St. Louis, his house was much of the time 
a free tavern for travelers, tramps and politicians who 
made it convenient to stop there, certain of hospitable en- 
tertainment gratis. With such wayfarers, social callers, 
and visiting friends and relatives, the place Avas seldom 
without guests, and generallv overrun with them. When 
Mr. Snyder was at home he enjoyed making his promis- 
cuous company comfortable and trying to enhance the 
pleasure of their visit ; but his business affairs called him 
away more and more as time passed, leaving the farm to 
be conducted in his absence by hired employes, and guests 
to be entertained by his wife, to whom the situation was 
frequently irksome, if not intolerable. 

The management of the household and control of indolent, 
negligent servants, with care of young children, and intru- 
sion of uninvited and undesirable strangers in her home, at 
times sorely tried her patience and fortitude. The most 
annoying tramps of those day^ in that locality were dis- 
charged and furloughed soldiers and deserters from Jeffer- 
son Barracks, Avho ranged through the country settlements 



59 

be..in. or stealing food and portable articles that could 
reldilv be bartered at the village groceries for wlnskey. 

Worse than all those annoyances, however m the .n.k 
seasorthe low alluvial Bottom was reeking -*!-— ^ - 
exhalations arising from the numerous swamps, sloughs and 
ats a"nant and foul with decayed vegetation, poisoning 
t atmi^here, and exceedingly detrimenta to heal £ 
the inhabitants. Moreover, it was infested f «« «^ ^ 
sm-in- until the next winter with swarms of inosqnitoes and 
o?lier^.J^ous insects that rendered life of both man and 
hpast a continuous misery. ^ 

I the autumn months but few of the P0P"1«*'«" «« 
th Bottom escaped attacks of intermittent, o™ "en^ 
fevers and often almost every member of a f amilv anc 
of the "ire settlement was prostrated by them at the 
smn til so as to be unable to give one another neces- 
sarv as^s^'ance. At such times the few physicians in the 
countn were-as a choice of evils-in active demand. AMth 
7t:^ea improvements and discoveries ,n the pi.c- 
tice of medicine at the present time, it is still, at best, but 
a system of empiricism: then-three-quarters of a century 
Jl-Z treatnient of diseases by blood-letting, blistering 
n^eti:; calomel and ..dap. etc was -"P'X ^f — 
barbarity rendering it possible for only the fittest to su. 

'"' The cold of winter brought respite from those evils, and 
also cessation of general outdoor labor. Among t^e Creo es 
it was the season for recreation and social en.ioymeij^ Thn^ 
narties of friends, both young and old. came to the taim 
fnfoimallv, from Cahokia and vicinity to pa.ss the day o 
Ion" evenings in customary amusements and gaiety, ir 
perdiance tl^y failed to bring a fiddler with them one wa 
Lmediately sent for, and in the dance -d »ie'-J t tha 
followed, the petty vexations and graver t^als of the sum 
mer were forgotten. Those visits were retii led by the 
fanner and wife, sometimes protracted in rounds ot tes 



60 

tivities, for many days, in accordance with ancient usages 
of the French villagers. 

The verdict of the people at the polls in 1824 against 
the constitutional perpetuation of slavery in the State gave 
a surprising impetus to every branch of industry and busi- 
ness. That assurance, that Illinois was henceforth conse- 
crated to freedom, induced a marked increase of immigra- 
tion that — like an invading army — pushed the frontier cor- 
don of settlements farther and farther to the north. The 
spirit of progress was revived, and everywhere was mani- 
fested the awakening of dormant energies freed from the 
incubus of an impending monstrous evil. Roads were open- 
ed, new towns sprung up, "cleanings" changed hands and 
were enlarged, new methods were introduced and old ones 
improved, and the Yankee schoolmaster and clock peddler 
appeared— sure harbingers of advancing civilization as 
the lark and blue bird are of spring's approach. 

The term of the four supreme court justices elected in 
1818 for six years, having expired by limitation, the fourth 
General Assembly convened in extra session at Vandalia, 
Nov. i4, 1824, before the close of winter passed a bill reor- 
ganizing the judiciary by creating a supreme court with 4 
judges elected by the Legislature for life, and 5 circuit 
judges, one for each of the 5 judicial circuits into which the 
bill divided the State. Of the supreme court, Wm. AYilson 
was elected chief justice, with Thomas C. Browne, Samuel 
D. Lockwood and Theophilus W. Smith, associate justices. 
Judge Phillips of the old court was so certain of being 
elected governor in 1822, that he resigned his judgeship, 
and so disgusted and disappointed at his defeat, by Coles, 
that he left Illinois and returned to Tennessee. Judge 
Reynolds was an applicant for re-election to the supreme 
bench, but his name Avas not considered by the Legislature. 
The five circuit judges appointed were John W. Sawyer, 
Samuel IMcRoberts, Richard ]\I. Young, James Hall and 
James 0. Wattles. 

In the fourth General Assembly, Joseph Duncan and 



61 

Thomas Carliii appeared for the first time in public life, 
as Senators from Jackson and Greene counties respectively. 
Gov. Edwards had resigned his seat in the U. S. Senate to 
accept the appointment of IMinister to Mexico, but before 
taking his departure for the Mexican capitol, became in- 
volved in an unfortunate controversy with Hon. William 
H. Crawford, secretary of the treasury, concerning de- 
posits of land oftice funds in the broken State bank at 
Edwardsville, that added nothing to his prestige or repu- 
tation, but impelled him to resign his diplomatic mission 
to Mexico also. He then asked the fourth General Assem- 
bly to vindicate him by reinstating him in the United States 
Senate to complete the term he had resigned, expiring on 
the third of ]\Iarch following. But the Legislature refused 
to do so, electing instead his enemy, John ]\IcLean, by the 
vote of 31, to 19 for Edwards and 2 for Nathaniel Pope. 
For the succeeding full term Elias K. Kane— who was so 
badly defeated for Congress in 1820 by Daniel P. Cook- 
was elected. 

Elias Kent Kane, it may truthfully be said, was the 
chief architect of the State government, or of the consti- 
tution framed by the convention of which he was per- 
haps the most active member. He was born, of Irish par- 
ents, in New York, on June 7, 1786, and educated at Yale 
college. Before completing his law studies he wandered 
to Nashville, Tennessee, and in a short time continued his 
journe}^ to Illinois, arriving in Kaskaskia in the fall of 
1814. He was soon admitted to the bar, and married Fe- 
licite Peltia, a French girl, native of Kaskaskia. He was 
the first Secretary of State of Illinois, appointed by Gov. 
Bond, and held that office four years. In 1824 he was 
elected to the Legislature, and Avas one of tiie most earnest 
supporters of the slavery convention scheme, both in the 
Legislature and in the columns of the Bepuhlican Advocate, 
which he then in part, edited. Notwithstanding his stal- 
wart efforts to make Illinois a slave State, he was elected 
to the United States Senate in November, 1824, by an anti- 



62 • 

convention Legislature, on the tenth ballot, defeating Sam- 
uel D. Lockwood, one of the most ultra of anti-convention 
champions, by the vote of 28 to 23. 

He was re-elected to the Senate in 1831, and died in 
AA'ashington four years later, on Dec. 12, 1835, in the 1:9th 
year of his age, having served ten years in the national Sen- 
ate. He was a fluent and able writer and eloquent speaker, 
a profound lawyer of brilliant talents, and a courtly gentle- 
man of amiable disposition. He Avas tall, light complected 
and of prepossessing appearance, but not strong, physically. 
Kane county was so named to perpetuate his memory, by 
the Legislature, in 1836. 

In political complexion, the fourth General Assembly, 
of 1824-5, was as decidedly anti-slavery as the third As- 
sembly had been for slavery. Logically and consistently 
it should have rewarded Gov. Coles and Judge Lockwood 
for their valiant services in leading the freesoil forces to 
victory in the fierce campaign just closed, by sending them 
to represent, in the U. S. Senate, the State they were so 
instrumental in making free. But instead, it elected to 
that high station the two strongest and most conspicuous 
leaders of the slave party; and from the other leaders of 
the same slave party it selected seven of the nine new 
judges. ''There is nothing," remarks Hon. E. B. Wash- 
burne, "stranger than this in our political history." 

As inexplicable also is the base ingratitude of the Legis- 
latures and people of Illinois in failing to adequately re- 
ward Judge Nathaniel Pope for the inestimable services 
he rendered the incipient State when its delegate in con- 
gress. But for his far-seeing Avisdom and efiorts Illinois 
must have waited until its population was increased to 
60,000 before its admission into the Union ; and then its 
northern boundary would have b^en a line running west 
from the most southern point of Lake Michigan, giving to 
AVisconsin the fourteen Illinois counties lying at present 
north of that line, including Chicago and the Galena lead 
mines; also, the Illinois educational fund would probably 



63 

have been deprived of the two-tifths of the proceeds of 
sales of public lands in its limits it afterwards received. 

The census of 1825 enumerated a total population in 
Illinois of 72,817 ; and an adjourned session of the Legis- 
lature thereupon reapportioned the representative districts. 
The visit to Illinois of the IMarquis de LaFayette, in April, 
1825, was a memorable event in the annals of the State. 
He was received at Kaskaskia by Gov. Coles, the supreme 
judges, members of the Legislature and a nuiltitude of 
citizens, Avith demonstrations of the highest respect. He 
was escorted from Kaskaskia to Vandalia, and thence to 
Shawneetown where a steamboat was chartered to convey 
him and party to Nashville, Tennessee, and back to Shaw- 
neetown, from whence he took his departure for the east 
accompanied by the Governor. The total expenses incurred 
by the State in entertaining the illustrious guest amounted 
to $6,473. That bill, together with the cost of taking the 
State census, the pay of the five additional judges, and of 
the adjourned session of the Legislature, not only drained 
the state treasury, but caused a deficit of over $40,000. 

A public debt of that magnitude seriously alarmed the. 
people. AVitli but insignificant sources of public revenue, 
and no sound money, or sound banks in the State, general 
bankruptcy seemed inevitable. Then arose a cry from 
the people for retrenchment in public expenditures. From 
all parts of the State were heard loud and indignant pro- 
tests against the prodigal and reckless waste of State rev- 
enues for the support of public schools,*" for pensioning 
life officers (the supreme judges), and the unnecessary ex- 
pense of five additional judges. There were bitter com- 
plaints of Legislative extravagance in paying to each of the 
supreme judges $800 per annum, and an annual salary of 
$600 to each of the circuit judges. Popular dissatisfaction 
grew more clamorous as time passed, until curtailment of 

* Authorized by a bill introduced by Senator Joseph Duncan and 
adopted by the last Legislature. 



64 

State expenses became the paramount issue in the next 
general election. 

The phenomenal popularity developed by Gen'l Jackson 
in the recent four-cornered presidential contest, had the 
effect in Illinois, as elsewhere in the Union, of distinctly 
defining political parties. His friends contended that hav- 
ing received the highest number of electoral votes he should 
have been declared elected President of the house of repre- 
sentatives, and that he was cheated out of the office by the 
minions of ''the Yankee Abolitionist, "—Adams. Then 
commenced the furious party antagonism that has de- 
scended, with increased asperity, to the present day. Prior 
to 1825 those who arrayed themselves under the Jackson 
banner were styled "Democratic Republicans," and called 
their opponents "Federalists." After election of Mr. 
Adams, his adherents assumed the party designation of 
"National Republicans"— changed in the next presidential 
campaign to "A¥higs." The Jackson men then dropped 
the "Republican" part of their party name and were 
henceforth knoAvn simply as Democrats. Arrayed under 
those titles the opposing party lines were sharply drawn, 
and party measures or "principles," in future dictated 
selection of candidates for office, — instead of mere prefer- 
ences for individuals, as before— expressed in the motto 
adopted, "Principles, not Men." 

For reasons not stated in Reynolds' autobiography the 
cordial relations existing between himself and Gov. Ed- 
wards up to 1823, were after that date very severely strain- 
ed. It was, however, an open secret at the time that dissolu- 
tion of their alliance Avas due to the disfavor, if not jealousy 
and disgust, with which Edwards regarded the aspirations 
of RejTiolds for the Senate ; and, on the part of Reynolds, 
resentment for Edwards' lack of good faith in failing, or 
refusing, to render him the assistance he then desired. His 
failure to defeat Judge Thomas for the Senate, in 1823, 
greatly mortified Reynolds; but the triumph of McLean 
over Edwards for a like position at the next session of the 



65 

Legislature mitigated his disappointment, and he took no 
pains to conceal his gratification at the result. 

"In the spring of 1826," Reynolds states, in his Life and 
Times, "Gov. Edwards and the anti-convention party as- 
sembled at Belleville, and selected a full ticket for all the 
county oltices, sheriff and all. Of course I and my friends 
Avere not included.'' But, merely "to gratify the people" 
Reynolds brought himself out as a candidate for the Legis- 
lature, with a full ticket of his "friends" for the county 
offices, in opposition to those of the Edwards-Cook faction. 

The waning popularity of Gov. Edwards admonished him 
that something must be done to regain his fading lustre 
and save himself from that common and dreaded doom 
of politicians, lapsing into obscurity. The Senate, he was 
'convinced, was out of his reach. His son-in-law, Daniel 
P. Cook, was more acceptable to' the people for Congress- 
man than himself; but Gov. Coles' term Avould soon expire, 
and several of his friends strongly urged him to offer for 
that place. And he did so. He made no overtures to Rey- 
nolds for his friendship and assistance ; but, as Reynolds 
states, was "hostile" to him, and "published many severe 
and bitter handbills against me during this election and 
the succeeding one of 1828." The candidates for Governor 
opposing Gov. Edwards were Thomas Sloo, Jr., and Lieu- 
tenant Governor Hubbard, both ultra Jackson men. Ed- 
wards was also a supporter of Jackson, but, like Reynolds 
—not so strenuously for Jackson as to oft'end the Whigs, 
lie made a very earnest and dignified canvass of the set- 
tlements, always ap)pearing in public dressed in fine cloth, 
with ruf(fed shirt front, and polished boots, and traveled 
in his carriage with a negro driver. 

Mr. Sloo* was a gentleman of very fair abilities and 

* Thomas Sloo. Jr., son of Thomas and Elizabeth [Roe] Sloo. for- 
merly of the State of New York, was born in Washington, Mason 
County. Kentucky, on the 5th of April, 1790. With fair country school 
education, he migrated to Cincinnati. O.. when twenty years of age, 
engaged in the merchantile business, and was there united in mar- 
riage, in 1814, to Miss Harriet Irwin, who died less than a vear later. 
On the 25th of August, 1819. he married Miss Rebecca Smith Findlay, 
and in 1820 sought a new home in the young State of Illinois. He 

-5 



66 

high character, a successful merchant and State Senator, 
but little known beyond the limits of his own district. Nin- 
ian Edwards w^as elected Governor, at the general State 
election, Aug. 7th, 1826, by the slender majority of 446 
over Mr. Sloo, receiving 6,280 votes, to 5,8o4 for Sloo, and 
580 for Hubbard. The combined number of votes cast 
for Sloo and Hubbard exceeding that of Gov. Edwards by 
134, leaves little doubt that had he been opposed by any 
one of the well-known popular Jackson politicians in the 
place of ]\Ir. Sloo, or by Mr. Sloo alone, who was compara- 
tively a stranger, he would have been defeated.* 

AViJliam Kinney, personally and politically opposed to 
Gov. Edwards, and residing in the same county, the Sloo 
candidate for Lieutenant Governor, was elected. John Rey- 
nolds was also elected a member of the Legislature in St. 
Clair County. A large majority of the General Assembly 
elected at the same time were, as Reynolds was, opponents 
of Gov. Edwards. 

The startling surprise of that election was the defeat of 
Daniel P. Cook for Congress by Joseph Duncan, w^hose ma- 
jority reached 694- The explanation of that unexpected 
result was the fact that in the late election of President by 
the house of representatives in 1824, Mr. Cook cast the vote 
of Illinois for John Quincy Adams. Although his act in 

located in Hamilton County and soon became a successful and popu- 
lar merchant. He was elected to the State Senate in 1822 and served 
until 1826, and voted for the convention resolution. In 1828 he left 
Illinois and moved to New Orleans, where he again entered the mer- 
cantile business. There his wife died in 1845. and in 1848 he changed 
his residence to Havana, Cuba, and was there married, on the 24th 
of Mav, 1849, to Miss Maria Frances Campbell, a native of South 
Carolina, who died in New Orleans on January 17, 1900. After a few 
years he returned to New Orleans, and was elected city treasurer, 
and served in minor positions on city boards, then was made presi- 
dent of the Sun Mutual Insurance Company and remained in its 
service vmtil his death which occurred on January 17. 1879, at the 
age of 88 years, 9 months and 12 days. He was always pro-slavery 
In sentiment, a strict member of the Episcopalian church, and re- 
markable for his old school courtly and polished manners. 

* The election of Gov. Edwards in 1826 was very distasteful to Lieut.- 
Gov. Kinney, who remarked that Edwards reminded him "of an old. 
broken down horse, so worn out that he could barely jump over 
into the corn field, and so exhausted that he couldn't eat any corn 
after he got in"— meaning that Edwards was barely elected by an 
extraordinary effort, and was so shorn of influence and power that 
he could accomplish nothing after securing the place. 



so doing was apparently justified by Mr. Adams having 
received the highest number of votes in Illinois at the pres- 
idential election in 1824, the Jackson men believed Mr. Cook 
misrepresented his constituents, and had joined the Aboli- 
tionists. 

And thus terminated the meteoric career of Daniel Pope 
Cook. He Avas then acting chairman of the Committee on 
Ways and Means in the House of Representatives and one 
of the most brilliant and inHuential members of Congress. 
The ravages of tubercular consumption were rapidly under- 
mining his frail system and setting a limit to his days. 
On expiration of his last term in Congress he visited Cuba 
with hope of obtaining from that climate some recupera- 
tion of his shattered health. Disappointed in his expecta- 
tions, and on the contrary, his strength failing, despondent 
and dispirited, he returned to his home in Edwardsville. 
Conscious that the end was not far distant he took leave of 
liis wife and child, and numerous admirers, and leaving Illi- 
nois and the scenes of his highly honorable achievements, he 
took his way alone to the home of his childhood in Kentucky 
to once more see his parents ; and there he died on the 16th 
of October, 1827, at the early age of thirty-three. Three 
years later (1830) his wife also died, at the residence of 
her father. Gov. Edwards, in Belleville, a victim of the 
same dread disease, consumption, leaving an only son, Gen'l 
John Cook, now an honored citizen of ]\Iichigan. 

In the twelve yeal's of Daniel P. Cook's residence in Illi- 
nois he practiced law, edited a paper, Avas circuit judge, 
attorney general, and for seven years the sole representa- 
tive of the State in the lower house of Congress. In the 
latter service, acting upon a memorial from the Illinois 
Legislature, and ably aided by Senators Kane and Thomas, 
he secured from Congress the grant of five alternate sec- 
tions of land on each side of the Illinois And Michigan 
canal its entire length (300,000 acres), including a portion 
of Chicago, which practically ensured completion of that 
great enterprise. For his valuable services to the State 



68 

the Legislature testified the people's gratitude by naming 
Cook county in his honor. 

Joseph Duncan was a native of Bourbon county, Ken- 
tucky, born February 22d, 1794. At the age of eighteen 
he enlisted in the military service of his country, and served 
with braver}^ through the war with England of 1812- '14. 
He was an Ension with Col. Croofhan at the heroic defense 
of Fort Stephenson, ^vhere he conducted himself with such 
gallantry that Congress directed the President to present 
him a SAVord in token of the nation's appreciation of his 
high merits. He came to Illinois with his widowed mother, 
and her other children, in 1818, and settled at Fountain 
Bluff in Jackson county. He had received but moderate 
education in the Kentuckv count v schools ; but time devel- 
oped his sound, practical sense, and he stored his well-bal- 
anced mind with much useful learning. In 1823 he was 
appointed major general of the Illinois militia, and in 1824 
was elected to the State Senate. 

At the August election in 1826 polls for voting were open- 
ed for the first time in Chicago, where 30 votes were cast, all 
for Edwards and Cook. 

Notwithstanding the ^broken banks and scarcity of money, 
the wretched roads and overfloAved streams and submerged 
prairies in the spring, and the green-headed flies, mosquitoes 
and malaria in the summer, Illinois continued to receive 
annually large accessions of population, and to prosper. 
The yield of corn, wheat and oats in 1826 was unprece- 
dented, and fruits of all kinds, known to flourish here, were 
in great profusion. In the southern counties of the State 
the cultivation of castor b^ans had commenced, and that of 
tobacco, cotton and flax had proven very satisfactory, the 
products being sufficient to supply all local demands. 

The fifth General Assembly was elected on the issue 
of retrenchment and reform. The members chosen met at 
Vandalia on Dec. 4th, 1826, and were faithful to their ante- 
election pledges. William Kinney, the Lieutenant Governor, 
X)resided over the Senate, with Emanuel J. West, as Secre- 



69 

tary; and in the house, John McLean, late U. S. Senator, 
was again elected Speaker, and William L. D. Ewing, clerk. 
By way of re trenchment the Legislature repealed the Dun- 
can free school law and the Hamilton road law. It also re- 
pealed the five new circuit judges out of office, and so 
amended the balance of the judiciary system as to require 
the four supreme court justices to hold circuit courts, there- 
by curtailing the State's expenses the sum of $8,000 annual- 
ly. A bill, introduced by John Reynolds to abolish the whip- 
ping post and pillory as punishment for crimes, and substi- 
tute in lieu thereof a penitentiary at Alton, was passed. For 
ways and means to erect the State prison provided for, 
Congress was appealed to, and, in response, granted the 
State authority to sell 30,000 acres of the Gallatin county 
saline lands, and 10,000 acres of the Vermilion county 
.salines, and apply one-half of the proceeds of said 
sales to the prison building fund, and the other half 
to the counties in the eastern part of the State for 
public improvements therein. Ex-Gov. Bond, Dr. Gershom 
Jayne and AVilliam P. McKee Avere appointed a board of 
Commissioners to locate the prison and to superintend its 
construction. 

Then the Legislature proceeded to elect a state treasurer 
to succeed Abner Field. Four candidates olfered for the 
place, Abner Field, James Hall, who had just been repealed 
out of his lately acquii;ed judgeship, John Tillson and 
Abraham Prickett. On the ninth ballot Judge Hall was 
elected. Field full}^ expected to be re-elected, but dis- 
appointed and vexed by his defeat, immediately on ad- 
journment of the session rushed into the hall and per- 
sonally chastised four of the members who had voted 
against him, and the others scampered away in undignified 
haste to escape his wrath. 

At the opening of the session of the Legislature Gov. 
Edwards delivered his inaugural message to the Assembly 
in person, in his usual pompous style, dressed in the height 
of fashion, resplendent in gold-laced broad cloth coat and 



70 

vest, and fine linen shirt with ruffled bosom and cuffs. In 
the early part of the session, in a special message to the 
Legislature, he made grave charges of corruption against 
the managers of the State bank at Edwardsville, William 
Kinney, Shadrach Bond, Thomas Carlin, Abraham Prickett, 
Elijah lies and Theophilus W. Smith. The majority of 
the Legislature, however, more friendly to those gentlemen 
than to the Governor, in taking action upon the message 
appointed a special committee— all of whom were strong 
anti-Edwards men — to investigate the charges, which they 
did with modern whiteAvashing effect, fully exonerating 
the bank officers from all blame or suspicion. 

The justices of the supreme court, instructed by a pre- 
vious Legislature to revise the State laws, reported the re- 
sult of their labors constituting a most thorough and able 
revision of the statutes, much of which is still retained 
unchanged. 

The Counties of Vermilion, Shelby, Tazewell, Perry, 
IMcDonough and Jo Daviess were organized, and the Legis- 
lature adjourned on the 19th of February, 1827. The 
spring months of 1827 passed without event of note but 
were enlivened by the annual hegira at that season, of 
laborers, loafers, speculators and gamblers to the lead dig- 
gings at Galena, who, imitating the habits of the "sucker" 
fish, migrated up the river in the spring and returned in 
the fall to winter in the south. , 

A little later, or early in the sunmier, occurred in the 
vicinity of Galena the famed "Winnebago war" — more 
properly the "Winnebago scare" — that for a brief time 
convulsed the State with apprehensions of a serious Indian 
outbreak. The AVinnebago Indians claimed and occupied 
the territorv between Galena and the Wisconsin River, 
and though friendly with the whites, had for some time 
been irritated by continual trespasses and outrages com- 
mitted by miners, prospectors and boatmen, and retaliated 
by the murder of one or more of the Avhite intruders. The 
casus helli precipitating the conflict mentioned and digni- 



71 

fied by the term "Winnebago war," was said by Gov. 
Reynolds, and other historians, to have been the kidnaping 
of a nniiiber of sijuaws by the crews of two keel boats on 
the way up the river with supplies for Fort Snelling. That 
version is pronounced totally untrue and absurd by Mr. 
Frank E. Stevens in his late masterly history of llie Black 
Haii'J: War. 

He traces the origin of the trouble to the implacable 
enmitv of Black Hawk and his British band of Sacs to 
the Americans. He says the Dakota Sioux and Chippe- 
was having fallen out, a party of the former while enter- 
taining a few of the latter, almost under the walls of Fort 
Snelling, fell upon them and murdered them in cold blood. 
Whereupon Col. Snelling, in command at the fort, in ac- 
cordance with Indian custom, arrested four of the guilty 
Dakotas and delivered them to the Chippewas who de- 
manded them, and they were summarily despatched. The 
Dakotas thought Col. Snelling had no right to interfere 
in theii' family jars, and awaited an opportunity to wreak 
their vengeance on some of the whites. 

Red Bird, a noted chief of the Winnebagos, had but re- 
cently led an expedition against the Chippewas which re- 
sulted in disastrous failure. While humiliated and morti- 
fied by his defeat he was approached by the wily Dakotas 
who represented to him that the four Indians delivered by 
Col. Snelling to Chippewa slaughter were Winnebagos. 
Then followed the massacre of several settlers by Red 
Bird's band. About that time two keel boats, descending 
the river from Fort Snelling, Avere attacked, about the 
mouth of the Bad Axe, by Indians supposed to be AVinne- 
bagos, but were in reality Dakotas and a party of Sacs 
under Black Hawk. Two of the boatmen were killed and 
four Avounded, of Avhom two subsequently died. 

That friction between the races was productive of in- 
tense excitement among both. The Winnebagos despatched 
couriers throughout their tribe and the Sioux inciting them 
to prepare for a general uprising to exterminate the whites. 



72 

The white settlers became wildly alarmed. Not less than 
3,000 of them fled to Galena for safety. The citizens were 
formed into companies, defenses were erected, and the 
Governor yvas appealed to for protection. In response, 
Gov. Edwards as quickly as possible sent to Galena a regi- 
ment of militia from Sangamon and Morgan Counties 
commanded bv Col. T. M. Neale. Volunteers from all the 
settlements, then fully aroused, offered their services to 
the Governor. In the mean time, however, Gen'l Atkin- 
son came upon the scene with 600 regular soldiers, and, 
with the Galena militia, marched into the Indian country 
and, without firing a gun, pacified the trouble. He arrested 
several of the principal chiefs, among whom was Black 
Hawk, who were afterwards tried for previous murders 
of whites. One or two Avere found guilty and executed, 
and the others liberated. Black Hawk was one of those 
acquitted, and, it is said, he afterwards boasted of having 
himself connnitted the murders for which they were tried. 
When Col. Neale arrived at Galena, by forced marches, 
he and his men were much disgusted on learning that 
peace Avas restored. They returned home disappointed, but 
for several years enjoyed the distinction, among their neigh- 
bors, of being heroes of the ''Winnebago war." 



CHAPTER IV. 

Gov. Edwards and John McLean — Election of Gen. Jackson and dom- 
inance of the Jackson Party — Progress of Education and Litera- 
ture in Ilhnois — Numerous distilleries, and habits of liquor drink- 
ing- — Reynolds and Kinney contest for Governor — Mr. Snyder 
elected to the State Senate. 

The political campaign of 1828 commenced in the sum- 
mer of 1827, and before the long, cold winter had fairly 
set in a host of candidates for the Legislature and other 
offices were industriously intervie^ving the voters. Politics 
then, as no\\', was the regular vocation of many and the 
pastime of all. Illinois had suffered from protracted 
droughts, crop failures, wars, pestilence and financial pan- 
ics, but never from a dearth of patriots read}^ and willing to 
accept office. The office seeker was here before the State 
came, and is still here in superabundance. 

Genl Jackson was the standing candidate for the Pres- 
idency of all who were opposed to the Adams administra- 
tion, and the Democrats of Illinois, believing he had before 
been defrauded of his election by New England influence, 
were enthusiastic in his support. His staunch friend, Gen'l 
Duncan, Avas again a candidate for Congress, opposed by 
George Forquer. In St. Clair County, Judge Reynolds was 
also "in the hands of his friends" for re-election to the 
Legislature, and Risdon Moore, Jr., a near neighbor of Mr. 
Snyder, in the American Bottom, was a candidate for the 
State Senate. 

In Gallatin Countv, John McLean was once more before 
the people for the Legislature. He had twice been elected 
Speaker of the house, and he declared it his intention, if 
successful at the next election in his countv, he would 
again be an applicant for the U. S. Senate to succeed Judge 
Jesse B. Thomas, who had published his intention to retire 
at the expiration of his term. Gov. Edwards would have 
been much pleased to re-enter the Senate when he vacated 



74. 

the Executive chair, but saw the hopelessness of attempting 
i\ contest for it against iNlcLean, then the strongest public 
man in the State. Thev had atitao'onized each other before 
admission of Illinois into the Union; and the two victories 
of Cook over McLean for Congress, with the latter 's defeat 
of Edwards for the Senate, had intensified their mutual 
enmity. In the Hush and glow of his poAver, Edwards 
looked down on McLean as an obstrusive upstart scarcely 
worthy of his respect. Time, however, wrought a change 
in their political standing, and now, conscious that the 
scepter of popular control was slipping from his grasp, and 
catching at every hope to regain it, Edwards became a meek 
suppliant for McLean's friendship. Suppressing his long- 
nurtured resentment, he wrote to McLean— who no longer 
feared, but defied him — a long', carefully worded letter, from 
Vandalia, dated the 24th of June, 1828, in which he said: 
*'I have no disposition to oppose your election to the Senate 
of the United States, and that I at present sincerely wish 
your success, and would be happy if any exertion of mine 
could ensure it. * * * And hence I have so often de- 
clined to respond to the various attempts to draw me out in 
relation to Mr. Pope's pretentions, that my aid is not, as it 
need not be, calculated on by him." Farther on he re- 
marked, "Not only Smith, but West, John Reynolds and 
Snyder, all candidates for the Legislature, profess to prefer 
Mr. Pope to anyone else."* 

The precise object Gov. Edwards had in view in thus 
humiliating himself to his old enemy is not very apparent. 
Judge Nathaniel Pope, then aspiring to the Senate, was his 
cousin, and had always been his active supporter. Rey- 
nolds, it is true, was a candidate for the Legislature, and 
was probably favorable to Judge Pope's election; but 
neither Smith, A¥est or Snyder were candidates for the 
Legislature, and were all three undoubted McLean men. 
Edwards knew that he was powerless to defeat McLean 
before the people, or their representatives in the General 

* Edwards Papers, pp. 346-349. 



75 

Assembly, and probably wisely concluded that it would be 
better to place himself then in harmony with the party in 
power. Another motive actuating" him may have been an 
ett'ort to enlist McLean's aid to defeat Duncan for Con- 
gress, knowing that he (]\lcLean) and Porquer were on 
terms of cordial friendship, though they had been uncom- 
promising opponents in the convention campaign of 1824. 

The spirit of "Old Hickory" was broadly diffused in 
Illinois in 1828. The Jackson men were fairly frenzied 
with enthusiasm for their distinguished leader. In the ex- 
travagance of their patriotic zeal for the hero of New 
Orleans they regarded opposition to his election as tanta- 
mount to treason. In many localities no Whig could be 
found rash enough to run for office, and Democrats of dif- 
ferent degrees of loyalty to Jackson Avere opposing candi- 
dates. 

The August election of 1828 was another Jacksonian vic- 
tory. Joseph Duncan was re-elected to Congress, defeating 
Forquer by over 4,000 majority. In St. Clair County, Ris- 
don Moore, Jr., Avas elected to the State Senate, and John 
Reynolds and AVilliam (J. Brown, all three convention, or 
pro-slavery, men, to the lower house— Reynolds receiving 
493 votes, Brown 461, John IT. Dennis 394, Abraham Ey- 
man 342, Levi Piggott 22, and John A. Manz 5. Dennis 
and Eymaii Avere ''EdAvards men." 

In the fall Gen'l Jackson AA-as triumphantly elected Pres- 
ident, having 178 electoi'aJ votes to 83 for John Quincy 
Adams. The Jackson Democracy Avas then unquestionably 
dominant in the Union — in Illinois it was supreme. 

LTpon organization of the sixth General Assembly, at 
Vandalia, on the 1st of December, 1828, John INlcLean Avas, 
for the third time, elected Speaker of the House. The mes- 
sage of Gov. EdAvards covering thirty-eight closely Avritten 
pages. Avas the most lengthy and elaborate yet deliA'cnni 
by any Illinois Go\a^rnor. As a means for regaining his 
former preeminence in politics and statesmanship his fertile 
brain evolved a sensational policy, startling to the coun- 



76 

try and confusing to his enemies. AYith many plausible 
arguments, and subtle reasoning, lie announced it in his 
message, to be the right of Illinois to all the public lands 
within its limits. It did startle the Legislature. The doc- 
trine Avas new, and the Governor's political enemies, largely 
in the majority, apprehensive that the people might be 
favorably impressed with the prospective acquisition by 
the State of such vast wealth, sustained it by adopting a 
resolution declaring that ''the United States cannot hold 
any right of soil within the limits of the State, but for 
the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dock yards, and 
other needful buildings." In some portions of the State 
this new phase of "State Sovereignty" was earnestly en- 
dorsed by the people : in others the representatives who 
voted for the resolution were laughed at by their constit- 
uents for having been made such fools of by Gov. Edwards. 
It is needless to say that Congress took no notice of the 
Governor's novel "buncomb." 

The joint session to select a senator to succeed Hon. 
Jesse B. Thomas elected John iMcLean without opposition 
and by acclamation, "a circumstance," Hon. E. B. Wash- 
burn has said, "without a parallel in the history of our 
State." The remarkably gifted recipient of that rare honor 
lived, however, to serve but one session of his six years' 
term, and died, at his home, in Shawneetown, on the l-Ith 
of October, 1830, aged 39 years. Judge Thomas, having 
perfected his arrangements, left Illinois, on expiration .of 
his term in the Senate, March 3d, 1829. and removed to Mt. 
Vernon, Ohio. For twenty years he had held high official 
positions in Illinois, and always executed the trust reposed 
in him with fidelitv and eminent abilitv. He retained 
throughout that period the unbounded confidence and re- 
spect of the people ; but rather than stultify himself by 
supporting Jackson, odious to him politically and per- 
sonally, thereby to retain the following of his constituents 
who adored Old Hickory, he chose to relinquish further 
aspirations to political honors, and leave the State. 



77 

The constant dread of taxation hauntino- the people im- 
pelled the sixth General Assembly to adopt the wretched 
expedient of selling the lands donated by Congress to the 
State for educational purposes, and borrowing the pro- 
ceeds of such sales to defray current expenses of State 
government. The lands thus granted by Congress to main- 
tain schools comprised one whole township of six nnles 
S(iuare, "to support a seminary of learning," and the six- 
teenth section in each township ; or the sixteenth part of 
the entire public domain within the State. It was all sacri- 
ficed to avoid ruffling the feelings of "tax dodgers," and 
settlers who had se^uatted on the school sections. By that 
criminal folly of weak demagogues the squatters were un- 
disturbed, the inevitable burden of taxation was temporar- 
ily staved off : but the cause of education was robbed of a 
princelv fund, and a perpetual debt entailed upon future 
taxpayers. Bv 1829 the influence of expanding social and 
commercial intercourse with the older states were very 
perceptible in Illinois. The coonskin cap, deerskin moc- 
casins, fringed hunting shirt and buckskin breeches, the 
common pioneer masculine apparel, were fast disappearing. 
And in the more advanced settlements, factory-made fab- 
rics were replacing the jeans and linseys of domestic manu- 
facture. There, too, the carryalls and dearborns were su- 
perseding ox wagons as family conveyances, and fine sad- 
dle horses were in greater demand. Churches and school 
houses were more numerous, and their refining impress on 
society was apparent. Here and there a neat, painted 
frame house loomed up in front, or to one side, of the old 
log cabin in which the family was raised, flanked on either 
side by a modern barn and thrifty apple orchard. 

Increasing numbers of steamboats on the rivers facili- 
tating transportation, stimulated all agricultural and in- 
dustrial interests, as Avell as commerce in its various de- 
partments. Farm products, no longer limited to domestic 
consumption, were exported to distant river points and 
profitably sold, or exchanged. The only circulating me- 



78 

dium was still the depreciated notes of banks in this and 
other states. That currenc}^, though below par, was a val- 
ued agency in promoting business by its constant circula- 
tion, as it could not be hoarded for fear of further de- 
preciation. A "shinplaster" worth seventy-five cents on 
the dollar at sunset might next morning be quoted at only, 
fifty cents. 

Newspapers published in the State were gradually mul- 
tiplying, and in many of the better class residences, books 
and papers were substituted for trophies of the chase. 
Though the common school system provided by Senator 
Duncan's bill had been suppressed in its inception, the 
cause of education still kept pace with the material growth 
of the State. In 1827 the Baptists established, on the farm 
of Kev. J. M. Peck in St. Clair County, Rock Spring Sem- 
inary, which was subsequently removed to Upper Alton, 
and there, transformed into Shurtliff College, is still in a 
flourishing condition. At Lebanon, in St. Clair County, 
McKendree College, now the oldest institution of learning 
in the State, and well maintained under the presidency of 
that profound scholar, Dr. McKendree Hypes Chamberlin, 
was founded in 1828 under the auspices of the Methodist 
conference. The Catholic convent at Kaskaskia, for educa- 
tion of young ladies, then at the zenith of its usefulness, 
was the highest grade school in the west and deservedly 
very popular. 

The votaries of literature in Illinois had already attract- 
ed the attention of the world of letters, and become fa- 
mous in both hemispheres. Judge James Hall, Prof. John 
Russell, Rev. John ]\Iason Peck, Sidney Breese, were pio- 
neer authors of genius, whose many contributions of ster- 
ling merit to the literature of that day were important fac- 
tors in the intellectual progress of the State. The Avriters 
above mentioned, wdth several other public men of distinc- 
tion and cultured tastes, organized a State Historical So- 
ciety at Vandalia in 1827. Several sessions of the Society 
were held, at the State capitol, of exceeding interest, at 



79 

which papers Avcre read and addresses delivered of mucb 
historic value. Judge James Hall was its president, and 
on the roll of its members were, with those above men- 
tioned, the now historic names of Samuel D. Lockwood, 
Gov. Edward Coles, John Reynolds, Samuel ]\IcRoberts, W. 
L. D. Ewing, Peter Cartwright, Gov. Ninian Edwards, 
Chief Justice AYilliam AVilson, Edmund D. Taylor, David 
J. Baker, Richard ]\I. Young and Theophilus W. Smith. 
The abandonment of that organization, and loss of its 
archives were a positive calamity to the State and people, 
deplored particularly by after generations. Illinois had 
then passed its period of greatest illiteracy. There were 
still some adults who could neither read or write, but their 
number was annually diminishing. A common impression 
of the early western pioneers— created by ignorant, or 
designing, eastern w^riters — portrayed them as rude and 
vulgar, total strangers to literarj^ acquirements and refine- 
ment of manners, and, in all personal essentials of civiliza- 
tion and culture, but little above the savages they had dis- 
placed. Such was far from the truth. Among the volun- 
teers led by George Rogers Clark into Illinois, and who sub- 
sequently returned to it, with others, to make it their home, 
a large proportion were men of more or less education, su- 
perior intelligence and sterling worth. And such was the 
character of the settlers of Illinois from the first. The 
dissolute and depraved were exceptional, as in all new 
territories. In 1829, the agitation for temperance reform, 
so general a few years later, had not yet emerged from its 
Boston cradle. If heard of incidentally in the west it was 
denounced as a -pernicious puritanical movement of the 
Yankees to abridge i)ersonal liberties guaranteed by the 
constitution. Small portable distilleries— the "Venomous 
Worm" of Prof. Russell— had been introduced into the 
State by early immigrants from Pennsylvania, Tennessee 
and Kentucky, and operated here and there in the settle- 
ments, unhampered by restrictive, or revenue, laws in their 
conversion of sod corn into whiskey, which had the merit. 



80 

at least, of cheapness and freedom from deleterious adul- 
terations. 

Moderate drinking was then not considered derogatory 
to character; nor was total abstinence esteemed a criterion 
of moral excellence or social purity. Liquors were staple 
articles of merchandise at all retail stores, and dramshops, 
known then as ''groceries," untaxed, or but nominally 
taxed, wer^ a conspicuous feature of every town and 
crossroads village. Liquor was also the almost universal 
adjunct of hospitality, and the most potent agent in elec- 
tioneering for office. 

When the Legislature adjourned, in January, 1829, John 
Reynolds was once more out of office, but "the leading 
characters all over the State had solicited him to offer as 
a candidate for Governor;"* and he did so. There was 
then in Illinois practically but one political party— the 
Jackson party, the AYhigs being in such a hopeless minority 
as to regard it futile to run candidates for the higher of- 
fices, and only in a few counties were they strong enough 
to elect local officers. The result, or effect, of that condi- 
tion, was not only segregation of the Jackson party into 
factions, but into different degrees of Jacksonism. Rey- 
nolds was a Jackson Democrat of the "Milk and Cider" 
brand— very conservative and prudent. The Whigs, though 
weak, were almost strong enough to hold the balance of 
power in the State. He inferred that no member of their 
party had the teremity to enter the race for Governor, and 
shrewdly calculated that a "milk and cider" course, in 
reference to Jackson, would secure to him the support of 
all the moderate Jackson men, and that the Whigs would 
vole for him as a choice of evils. 

AYilliam Kinney, the Lieutenant Governor, attended the 
inauguration of President Jackson, March 4th, 1829, and on 
his return to Illinois from Washington City, announced 
himself a candidate for Governor, as an ultra, or "Whole 
Hog" Jackson man. Kinney was inclined to go the "whole 

* Reynolds' -Life and Times, p. 290. 



81 

hog" in all things; in other words, he was an extremist. 
Proscription for opinion's sake had not yet become a party 
tenet, and Gov. Kinney was one of the first to promulgate 
it as the correct party doctrine. "The Whig's," he said, 
^'should be Avhipped out of office like dogs out of a meat 
house." Though the election was not to take place until 
August, 1830; the canvass of the State was commenced by 
botli candidates in the spring of 1829. 

No sentiment appeals to the average American with such 
stirring force as that of patriotism. Especially in the 
scramble for office is a gunpowder record far more effective 
for attaining success than the finest scholastic qualifications. 
Thrice is that candidate armed who at some period of his 
life shouldered his gun in defense of his country. Kinney 
had no war record, having chosen in early manhood to 
tread the avenues of peace, as a Minister of the gospel ; but 
Reynolds had served his State in its time of danger as a 
^'Ranger," when the frontier was menaced by combined 
English and Indian foes, in 1812-14. Prom that service he 
gained the sobriquet of the "Old Ranger"— of which he 
■was justly quite proud— and when a candidate for office 
posed before a grateful people as a veteran defender of 
his country. Though Gov. Edwards had run his public 
<}ourse — as all politicians do, sooner or later — the faction 
he controlled was still a power in the political affairs of 
the State. To conciliate that element, and if not enlist its 
support, at least neutralize its opposition, the Old Ranger 
wisely concluded would be a master stroke of policy. But 
he saw no way to accomplish it but by abasing himself to 
his haughty enemy, Edwards, and humbly beg restoration 
of his friendship— as Edwards had shortly before pros- 
ti'ated himself in the dust before IMcLean. AVhile he was 
fully aware of the low estimate placed upon himself by 
Gov. Edwards, he also knew that no public man in the State 
was so obnoxious to Gov. Edwards as Kinne3\ He enter- 
tained no fear that Edwards would support Kinney: but 
the rlanger he apprehended was that tlie Edwards men 
-6 



82 

jnight possibly ally themselves with the Whigs, and bring 
out a third candidate for governor, who would defeat the 
divided Jackson party — both himself and Kinney. 

Spurred to desperate action by the seeming exigency 
of the situation, the Old Sanger addressed Gov. Edwards 
as follows: 

"Waterloo, 12 August, 1829. 

'^DEARSTR: 

*'I conceive it mv dutv to communicate with vou. I do 
it in the spirit of peace and good will. Let the past be 
forgotten. It is right for the public good to unite, and 
lay aside all personal difficulties. Many of your friends 
are mine. Many of them have p'roposed me to the public 
for governor. It is necessary to secure success for us all 
to act in concert. All this anxiety for the good of the State 
will come to nothing if we do not act together. This can 
be done without making much parade about it at the be- 
ginning. I have been over some of the State this spring, 
and AAdll see much of it this fall. I would be much pleased 
to say to our mutual friends that all was harmony in this 
section of the State. 

We must act not only in concert, but with energ^' to 
gain all points. We have the means, if we use them right. 
We must head our opponents in their own way. Presses, 
speeches, and much riding must be brought in our aid. 
I will do my part. I was placed on the track at Vandalia 
for this purpose that I could help myself. I have not been 
lazy in the business. AVe are all equally interested in the 
present approaching contest. The office I go in for with the 
wishes of our friends is not the only one. Please write me 
to Kaskaskia bv ]\Ir. Covdes. 

"Your humble serv't, 

"John Reynolds."* 
Gov. N. Edavards, Belleville. 
Fav'd by A. Cowles, Esq. 

* Edwards Papers, p. 41G et seq. 



83 

The intimation delicately conveyed in the closing line 
that the office "our friends" were trying to force upon 
him was "not the only one/' was a well-aimed shaft that 
struck Gov. Edwards in a vulnerable point— his lingering 
hope that he might again occupy a seat in the United States 
Senate. His ansAver was dignified, cautious and non-com- 
mittal, but he asserted positively that he was not for Kin- 
ney, and would, in due time, demonstrate the right of the 
State to all the lands within its limits, and "maintain it 
without force, or the slightest interruption to the tranquil- 
ity of the Union." That was another vulnerable point, 
that Reynolds lost no tiine in attacking. He unhesitatingly 
became zealous in his advocacy of that queer hobby, and 
so adroitly plied his flattery that he secured the active 
support of (lov. Edwards before the summer had passed. 
In fact, their relations grew to be quite cordial and confi- 
dential. Writing to Gov. Edwards from Cold Prairie. Dec. 
1st, 1829, the Old Ranger said : "I rec'd from Mr. Cowles 
the ivritingy which I know to be excellent. I am under obli- 
gations for it. I tho't it advisable to change some of the 
expressions more into my lingo. The reasoning on the 
subject of the public lands is demonstration itself, and 
shall go verbatim. No man of any ordinary capacity can 
resist the argument. '^ * * j ^noAV not how many of 
these handbills ought to go out. I was thinking of l.OOU. 
If you cannot go to Vandalia, please inform ^Ir. Cowles 
of your notions on this subject. I would lilve soon to see 
whom we ought to elect to the legislature."* 

The Old Ranger adopted without hesitanc}^ as his own, 
the electioneering handbill written for him bv Gov. Ed- 
wards ; but very prudenth^ changed some of its high-sound- 
ing, rhetorical expressions into his own well-known 
"lingo;" the Governor's ready-made arguments "on the 
subject of the public lands," however, he permitted to "go 
verbatim.'^ No less significant was the hint about seeing 
"whom we ought to elect to the legislature," as one duty 

* Edwards Papers, pp. 46.3-464. 



84 

of the Legislature he referred to would be the election of 
a U. S. Senator. 

William Kinney, the candidate for governor opposed to 
Keynolds, was born in Kentucky in 1781, and came with 
liis parents and their other children, to New Design, Illi- 
nois, in 1793. He is said to have driven the first team and 
wagon that ever passed over the road from Fort IMassac 
to, Kaskaskia. He grew up to manhood on the farm in 
rude ignorance, an energetic, frolicksome, good natured 
fellow, and— fortunately for himself— married before he 
had reached the age of twenty. After that event he was 
taught, by John IMessenger, to read and write, and upon 
that foundation became in time, by his own efforts and ap- 
plication to study, a very intelligent and well-informed 
man. In 1803 he located four miles northeast of Belleville 
on heavily timbered land, and there built his cabin and 
cleared a farm. To that industry he added a country 
store, and prospered. His business tact was marvelous. He 
bought and sold anything offered or demanded, from whis- 
key, pigs and chickens, to negro slaves and farms, and 
amassed a large and valuable estate. In 1809 he was con- 
verted and joined the Baptist church, and not long" after- 
wards was authorized by the church to preach, which he 
'did Avith zeal and effect. In an evil hour he contracted the 
mania for public life and office, and, in 1818, was elected 
a Senator in the first State Legislature. 

In stature he was above medium height, squarel}^ and 
compactly built, nniscular, energetic and active ; with hazel 
eyes and auburn hair. He had regular, pleasant features ; 
kind, sympathetic nature, and sanguine, jovial disposition. 
Not profound in thought or book learning, he had much 
solid, clear, common sense, and his cordial, friendly, ways 
made him popular among the people. His voice was strong, 
and though not eloquent or always logical, his speeches, 
as his conversation, interspersed with Avitty anecdotes and 
homely original phrases, were interesting and entertaining. 
His convictions were firmly grounded and immovable, as 



85 

were his friendships and enmities; but in all thing's he was 
actuated by a hi^h and delicate sense of honor. The pur- 
suit of office and its— too common — concomitant, generous^ 
convivial habits, finally wrought his ruin and clouded the 
evening of his life with financial troubles and pitiable 
wreck of his bright and vigorous mind. 

The protracted contest Avas characterized by extraordin- 
ary earnestness and enthusiasm on the inirt of both can- 
didates and their friends. They repeatedly traveled over 
all the settled i:>ortions of the State, not omitting Galena^ 
then in the zenith of its phenomenal prosperity and sep- 
arated from the older settlements bv an uninhabited waste 
of over two hundred miles. They addressed the people 
dailv, scattered their handbills evervwhere, and caused 
whiskey to tlow as freelv as water. Kinnev Avas not a 
Avriter, but always had at hand an amanuensis to Avrite his 
correspondence and shape his copy for the printer. And 
Re3molds, professing to be a "classic" scholar, as already 
shown, was not backward in availing himself of Gov. E(^- 
wards' "tt'riYi7<.g/' and of help from every available quar- 
ter.* Enclosing the copy of another hand bill for Reynolds 
to his brothers, Cyrus and B. F. EdAvards, for the printer at 
Ed\A^ardsville, oil July 15, 1830, Goa^ Ed\A^ards Avrote to 
them : "I Avill either pay $15 toA\'ard the expense, or procure 
siifficient money for Reynolds, AA'hich I can do by going his 
security and giving I2V2 P^i" ^^^^t interest. I haA^e already 
advanced more monev than all of Revnolds' friends to- 
gether, though they do not seem to know it." The fact that 
Gov. EdAvards Avas actively assisting Reynolds— supposed 
Avith ulterior motives — Avas soon generally knoAvn, and be- 
fore the campaigii closed, Kinney and all his cohorts mea.sur- 
ably ignored Reynolds, and aimed their malignant abuse 
and vituperation at EdAA'ards. 

Kinney avoided prolix discussions of State policy, and 

* "I told Reynolds he must fight the battle more bravely, or he 
would be an object of contempt deservedly; and he has agreed to 
publish a hand bill written by Ford and myself for him."— George 
Forquer to Gov. Edwards. Edwards Papers, pp. 51S-519. 



86 

sought to amuse and interest his hearers with ridiculous 
allusions to Rejmolds, and endeavored to fasten upon him 
the charge of being an Adams man, and claiming that he 
himself was the only Jackson candidate. Reynolds drank 
no liquor, but saw that his ''friends" who did were Aveil 
supplied with it. He made no personal charges against 
Kinnev and invariably treated him with deference and 
respect. 

Risdon Moore, Jr., the senator elected in St. Clair County 
in 1828, died, at his home, in the summer of 1829. That 
sad event caused a vacancy in the County's representation 
in the State Senate to be supplied at the next general 
election in 1830. When the selection of a candidate to 
succeed Mi*. Moore was agitated the people of the county 
with ii'reat unanimity turned to Adam W. Snvder as the 
most available man for the place. So general and sponta- 
neous was their choice that he could not well decline it, 
and, in obedience to their Avishes, he announced himself a 
candidate as a Jackson Democrat, but unidentified with 
either the ''milk and cider" or "whole hog" factions. He 
Avas not, however, permitted to occupy the field alone. Ex- 
tremists of the Edwards-Reynolds factions regarding him 
as, in a manner, the political legatee of Senator Jesse B. 
Thomas, placed in opposition to him one Robert Zimmer, 
of whom nothing whatever is now known. 

For the first time John Reynolds and Adam W. Snyder 
were candidates in the same campaign, not as antagonists, 
however ; but nominally on the same ticket, for different 
offices. The impetuous contest of Reynolds and Kinney for 
the Governorship overshadowed, indeed almost entirely 
eclipsed, all others for minor offices that year ; yet, the day 
of widely circulating daily papers not having then dawned, 
aspirants of all grades, who chose to address the people 
"on the issues of the day," could always depend on having 
interested and attentive audiences. In his new role of 
office-seeker, Mr. Snyder delivered his first political speech 
in the French Ian2:ua2:e to his earliest Illinois friends, at 



87 

Cahokia, in the spring of 1830. He spoke at public meet- 
ings at a few other points in the county in the course of 
the spring and early summer; but, as he was so generally 
well known, and had but nominal opposition, he found it 
unnecessary to expend any unusual exertions to secure 
his election. 

By the census of 1830 Illinois was shown to have a popu- 
lation of 157,44-7, and had 51 organized counties. The set- 
tlements then extended as far north as Peoria, and a few 
adventurous pioneers had squatted, from 30 to 75' miles- 
apart, along the Illinois River to the vicinity of Chicago, 
and at about equal intervals along the Mississippi from 
Alton to Galena. There were scattering settlements on 
the Military Tract between Pekin and Quincy and farther 
south, but on north to Wisconsin, between the Illinois and 
Mississippi, the prairie was unmarked save by a few dim 
trails leading to the Galena lead mines. 

At the election on the 2d of August, 1830, 12,937 votes 
were cast for Reynolds, and 9,038 for Kinney, a majority 
of 3,899 for the Old Ranger. Zadock Casey, of Jefferson 
County, a Baptist minister who ran on the Kinney ticket 
for Lieutenant Governor, was elected, defeating Ridgon B. 
Slocumb, the Reynolds candidate. The Whigs generally 
voted for Reynolds ; or, as some of them explained, they 
did not vote for Reynolds, but against Kinney. Gen'l Dun- 
can was re-elected to Congress as the Jackson (''whole 
hog") candidate, receiving 13,032 votes to 4,659 for Sidney 
Breese, and 3,397 for ex-Gov. Coles, anti-Jackson. 

In St. Clair County Mr. Snyder was elected to the State 
Senate, receiving all the votes polled for that office but 
02. In that county William G. Brown and Jacob Ogle were 
elected representatives, and John D, Hughes, sheriff. 

That ]\Ir. Snyder had not before sought office seems 
strange ; and yet more strange that it was with nuich reluc- 
tance he at length yielded to the solicitations of his friends 
and neighbors to become a candidate for the State Senate 
when there was no doubt of his election. Probablv he had 



88 

not yet discovered his natural aptitude for public life, and 
had resolved to ignore politics and apply his abilities and 
energies all of his days to the profession of law, and to 
private business. Or, it may be that he had contemplated 
entering upon a public career later, when he thought him- 
self better equipped for it by some years of study and self- 
education, and his financial condition . enabled him to do 
so. But, whatever reason may have induced him to remain 
in retirement for the ten years after his marriage, seems 
to have become inoperative after his election to the Senate, 
in 1830; for he thereafter was — in office-seeker's parlance 
— "in the hands of his friends.'' The ten years interven- 
ing since he was admitted to the bar, in 1820, were the 
busiest, and, in many respects, the most profitable of his 
life. In that time he accumulated a fine library, much 
valuable property, and a more valuable fund of learning 
and knowledge, that fitted him for the honorable stations 
to which he was subsequently called, and to still higher 
honors possibly in store for him had his physical health 
been commensurate with his ambition and mental force. 

On November 12th, 1830, David J. Baker, of Kaskaskia, 
a native of Connecticut, who came to Illinois in 1819— was 
appointed IT. S. Senator, by Gov. Edwards, to fill the va- 
cancy occasioned by the death of Senator ^McLean, to serve 
until the successor of McLean was elected by the Legisla- 
ture. 

Upon organization of the seventh General Assembly at 
Vandalia, on the 6th of December, 1830, Jesse B. Thomas, 
Jr., a nephew of Judge Jesse B. Thomas, late U. S. Senator 
— a lawyer residing at Edwardsville. was chosen secretary 
of the Senate, and William Lee D. Ewing, of Vandalia, 
was elected Speaker of the house. 

Mr. Snyder was detained at home by sickness in his 
family and pressing business engagements, and then de- 
layed by the unprecedented fall of snow, so that he did 
not appear at Vandalia to take his seat in the Senate until 
the 28th of December. After taking the prescribed oath 



89 

he was added, by the presiding officer, Lieut. Gov. Casey, 
tv> the standing coniinittees on Judiciary and Internal Im- 
provements. 

In his inaugural message, Gov. Reynolds reconnnended 
legislation for promotion of education, and for internal 
improvements, including completion of the canal, the build- 
ing of highways to connect distant parts of the State, 
completion of the penitentiary, and settling up the atfairs 
of the old State bank. That message was, in great part, 
the production of Gov. Edwards, and called attention of 
the Legislature especially to the new doctrine of State own- 
ership of its soil, with the assurance that he (Reynolds) 
was "satisfied that this State, in right of its sovereignty 
and independence, is the rightful owner of the land within 
its limits." 

As was the case with his two predecessors. Governors 
Coles and Edwards, Gov. Reynolds soon discovered that 
he was not in accord with the Legislature. A majority 
of the members of both houses were supporters of Kinney, 
and were so familiarly acquainted with the Old Ranger 
that they could not regard him seriously as the chief execu- 
tive of the State and entertain for him the respect and^ 
deference due the exalted position. Among the Senators 
especially, his serio-comic simplicity and assumed humility, 
and his lack of dignity and manhood made him the butt 
of many coarse jests; and they manifested their contempt 
for his authority by refusing to confirm his appointments, 
and treating his recommendations with indifference. 

]\Ir. Snyder commenced his Legislative duties innnediately 
on taking hi1^ seat, by asking leave to present the petition 
of Dr. Joseph Green, of St. Clair County, for relief, wliich, 
on motion of Conrad Will, was referred to a special com- 
mittee of three, Will, Snyder and Conway, appointed by 
the presiding officer. The specific relief prayed foi* by 
Dr. Green is now lost to history, but was probal)ly granted. 
The new sphere in which ]\Ir. Snyder found himself seemed 
well suited to his cast of mind, and he beuan at once to 



90 

participate in the proceedings of the Senate without re- 
straint or diffidence, or any sense of inferiority. He was 
a ready and pleasant speaker, with decided taste for dis- 
•cnssion and debate, particularly of public questions. His 
'Courteous and agreeable manners, and^ friendly, social dis- 
position favorably impressed his associates in the Senate 
chamber Avho were not long in recognizing his force and 
<iapability. 

But for obligations incurred by the State as sponsor for 
its old broken bank, its finances Avere in comparatively 
sound condition. On Dec. 1st, 1830, there was a balance 
in the treasury of $32,404. The State was indebted for 
outstanding auditor's warrants $11,516, and for school 
fund warrants $28,283. There was due the State from de- 
linquent non-resident tax-payers, $11,600: from Abner 
Field, late treasurer, $12,516 ; for rents of the Gallatin sa- 
lines $5,866, and from sheriffs on judgements, $805. The 
annual revenues of the State, from all sources reached 
$45,000, and annual current expenses averaged about 
$42,000. 

Hon. David J. Baker, appointed Senator temporarily, by 
Gov. Edwards, was not in sympathy with the Kinney ele- 
ment of the Legislature, consequently, that body hastened 
to come together at the earliest convenient date to relieve 
him by electing Mr. McLean's successor. In joint session, 
on the 11th of December, Elias K. Kane was elected his 
own successor on the first ballot. The name of Gov. Ed- 
wards was not even mentioned, as a candidate. For Mc- 
Lean's successor, John M. Robinson, of White County, was 
elected on the fifth ballot, with 34 votes, to 15 for Thomas 
]\Iather. The only civil office Mr. Robinson ever held prior 
t ) his elevation to the Senate was that of Prosecuting Attor- 
ney. He had been commissioned a Brigadier General of 
militia some years before. He Avas a native of Kentucky, 
born in 1794, and came to Illinois in 1817. He Avas a 
laAvyer, and regarded as one of the ablest in southeastern 
Illinois. He Avas six feet, four inches tall, AA'ith erect, sol- 



91 

dier-likc bearing", fine features, and was an eloquent speajv- 
er. It is somewhat remarkable that, with few exceptions, 
the men who gained prominence in the early government 
of the State were tall, of large stature and attractive ap- 
pearance. Daniel P. Cook, slender and effeminite, was one 
of the few exceptions. Gov. Ford, another exception, who 
was scarcely five and a half feet high, thin and homely, 
Avith Imig nose turned at the point a little to one side, com- 
menting upon the fact above stated, says: "Edwards was 
a large^ Avell-made man, with a noble, princely appearance, 
which, was a circumstance greatly in his favor as a gover- 
nor over a rude people, of whom it may be said, that the an- 
imal greatly preponderated over the intellectual man. In 
fact, it may well be questioned whether mankind Avill ever 
become so intellectual and .spiritual that mere size, vigor 
of muscle, and consequent animal spirits, will cease to have 
more influence with the multitude than mere intellect un- 
aided by those fleshy advantages."* 

* Ford's History of Illinois, p. 63. 



CHAPTER V. 

The Wiggins Loan — State entitled to three Congressmen — The Whip- 
ping Post and Pillory abolished — Winter of the Deep Snow — The 
State borrows $20,000 to pay current expenses — First campaign of 
the Black Hawk War — The Indians reappear in 1832 — Twd thou- 
sand volunteers are put in the field — Mr. Snj'der's fight with 
Indians at Burr Oak Grove. 

The Senatorial elections disposed of, the Legislature 
grappled with the serious problem of devising means for 
redemption of the outstanding notes of the old State bank. 
That duty had been evaded, and postponed upon various 
pretexts by former Legislatures whose members could de- 
vise no solution of the matter but by increasing the public 
debt; or increasing direct taxes on property. Either horn 
of that dilemma, if adopted, would incite the wrath of the 
people, and consequently relegate the members who voted 
for it to the tomb of the Capulets— so to speak. The bank 
charter had expired by limitation, and' settlement of its 
affairs could no longer be deferred. After discussion of 
every phase of the question, a bill was finally passed au- 
thorizing the loan, upon the faith of the State, of $100,000 
to meet, in part, the losses of the bank. The money was 
secured of Mr. Wiggins, of Cincinnati, and became famous 
in the financial history of the State as ''the Wiggins loan." 
And it was long a nightmare and terror to a large class 
of people, who charged that the Legislature had sold the 
State outright to AViggins, as so enormous a sum, they 
imagined, could never be repaid by Illinois. ]\Iany mem- 
bers of the Legislature were sorely embarrassed to contrive 
suitable apologies and explanations to their constituents 
to justify their action, and a goodly number of them were 
never heard of again in public life. "The honor of the 
State was saved, the Legislature was damned for all time 
to come."* 

* Ford's History of Illinois, p. 107. 



93 

An animated contest occurred in joint session for elec- 
tion of a state treasurer to succeed Judge llall who was 
himself a candidate for re-election, lie was anti-Jackson ; 
but in the paper he edited at Vandalia he had ably and 
strenuously advocated the election of Kinney. He was op- 
posed by John Dement, a "whole hog:" Jackson man, who, 
however, had worked and voted for Reynolds. Enough 
Kinnev members Avere finallv won over to elect Dement, 
which was claimed a great victory for the Reynolds admin- 
istration. 

The seventh General Assembly re-apportioned the State 
for representation upon the basis of the census of 1830, 
whereby Illinois was found to be entitled to three Congress- 
men, and the Legislative representation was increased to 26 
Senators and 55 representatives. It also amended the 
criminal law by abolishing the whipping post and pillory 
modes of punishment and substituting therefor imprison- 
ment in the penitentiary at hard labor. 

Mr. Snyder is show-n, by the Senate journal of that ses- 
sion, to have been one of the busiest, most attentive and 
most influential members of that body. He was never 
absent, and voted on all measures proposed. He voted for 
the AYiggins loan, and, on returning to the people who 
elected him, defended the loan as the wisest course that 
could have been pursued under existing conditions. He 
opposed a bill introduced for establishing another State 
bank. On the 6th of January, 1831, he submitted a Besolu- 
iiou requesting "the Governor to correspond with any 
person, or persons, to ascertain if a loan of $20,000 can 
be obtained for the State, at a rate of interest not to ex- 
ceed 6 per cent, per annum, and at a credit of not more 
than ten years ; so as to have said money at the seat of gov- 
ernment of this State at the close of the present general 
assembly to defray current expenses. And that the Gov- 
ernor report the result to the Legislature." That resolu- 
tion, indicating unmistakably the emptiness of the State 
treasury, was, of course, adopted unanimously by both 



94 

houses, and the Governor reported before adjournment that 
he had succeeded in borrowing the sum specified. 

On January 11, 1831, ' ' Governor Reynolds sent a special 
message to the Legislature conveying the information that 
"the Indians had conmiitted outrages and injuries on citi- 
zens on the northwest boundarv of the State," and asked 
that authority be granted him ''to call out a sufficient force 
to protect the settlers, enforce administration of the law 
and remove the oifending Indians from the territory they 
had sometime ago sold to the government." The message 
and accompanying papers were, on motion of Mr. Snyder, 
referred to the committee on military affairs, who soon 
reported, and a bill was passed giving the Governor plenary 
power to repel the Indian raid. 

A bill introduced by Mr. Snyder, and passed, embodying 
the then novel principle, now generally recognized, of mu- 
nicipal control of corporations, provided the granting of 
power to the County Court of St. Clair County to regulate 
the rates for ferriage charo^ed bv the Wiagins Ferrv Com- 
pany which Avas an unavoidable monopoly as merciless in its 
extortionate charges as is the Chicago stockyard monopoly 
of today. Acts were passed authorizing individuals named 
to "lay out" roads and build bridges in various parts of the 
State. The Counties of Cook, Effingham, La Salle, Rock 
Island and Jasper were organized, the latter two having 
less than 400 inhabitants each. On the 16th of February, 
1831, the seventh General Assembly adjourned after a ses- 
sion of 72 days. 

The weather during that winter Avas the severest yet ex- 
perienced by the settlers of Illinois, and that period is mem- 
orable in the annals of the State, as ''the winter of the deep 
snow." Snow began falling early in December, 1830, and 
continued to fall at intervals until in Januarv, attaining 
an uniform depth of three feet four inches. It was drifted 
by force of wind, in -some localities to several feet more, 
filling lanes and covering fences, and, in some instances, 
burAing beneath it small log cabins with their inmates. 



95 

Rain fell and i'ruze, fonniug a crust of ice on the snow's- 
surface strong- enough to bear a man's weight. The snoAV 
reniained on the ground until late in ]\Iarch, 1831, with 
severely cold Aveather, the temperature often falling sev- 
eral degrees below zero. Many quails, rabbits, and other 
birds and small quadrupeds perished from the effects of 
cold, and starvation. Deer and turkeys and flocks of prai- 
rie chickens invaded the corn fields and fed upon such corn, 
in the shock as was accessible to them; but became so ema- 
ciated from want of sufficient food as no longer to tempt 
the human instinct for merciless slaughter. The deep sno\\' 
and protracted cold caused much suffering and privation 
among iiiany of the settlers who were illy prepared for 
such an unexpected visitation. 

]\rr. Snyder, in company with two other members of the- 
Legislature, took their departure for Vandalia, from Belle- 
ville, on the 15th of December in a private conveyance, and 
though the distance between the two toAvns is but fifty miles, 
the depth of snow on the roads and the stormy weather 
so impeded their progress that tAvelve days were required, 
of hard traveling and delays to reach the State Capitol. 

It was fortunate for the exhausted State treasury that 
firewood was abundant and convenient at Vandalia. The 
Auditor's report states that 78 cords of wood were con- 
sumed in heating the State House during the session of" 
the Legislature, costing $1.75 per cord. 

In 1804 a Sac Indian murdered a white man, not far 
from Rock Island, and was arrested by the Indian agent 
and sent to St. Louis and there confined in jail. Four of 
the principal Sac chiefs proceeded to St. Louis to try to 
effect his release. Thev were cordially received bv the 
agents of the government there and royally entertained. 
They were promised that the culprit would be set at lib- 
erty; and were loaded with presents and liberally plied 
with fire water. Then a treaty was proposed to tliem. 
which thev sianed on November 3d, by which they ceded 
to the United States all their lands in Illinois lying be- 



96 

tween the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers and extending 
from the mouth of Rock River to the northern State boun- 
dary, about 50,000,000 acres, in consideration of an annual 
payment to the tribe in perpetuity by the United States oi: 
$1,000 dollars. The government further agreed to permit 
the Sacs to hunt upon that ceded territory until incoming 
settlers should need it, when the President would give 
them notice to evacuate it. To much of that district ceded 
by the Sacs they perhaps had no title, as the Winnebagoes 
occupied all of it between Rock River and the Mississippi 
above the Prophet's town, forty miles from the junction of 
the two streams, and the Pottawatomies were located for 
some distance west of the Illinois River from its mouth to 
its source. 

Conseciuently, the Sacs retained peaceable possession 
of the lands they had sold until the ever advancing tide 
of civilization demanded their removal. Reluctantly they 
yielded to the President's positive order in 1830 and re- 
moved to the extensive reservation allotted to them on the 
western side of the Mississippi. There the extraordinary 
fall of snow and rigorous weather of the winter following, 
rendering hunting and fishing impracticable, reduced them 
to the verge of starvation. In the spring of 1831 Black 
HaAvk and his band recrossed the Mississippi and returned 
to their old village, Saukenuk, three miles south of Rock 
Island. Thev came back for food, to hunt, and raise corn, 
which some of the squaws commenced to plant. They 
found their village partly destroyed and the detested white 
settlers in possession of their fields. They ordered the white 
intruders away, and attempted to enforce their order by 
tearing the clapboard roofs from the cabins of the tres- 
passers, throwing down their fences, and killing their stock. 
It was then, in April and May, the panic-stricken settlers 
sent to Gov. Reynolds for protection. In response to their 
appeals the Governor issued a call for 700 men to rendez- 
vous at Beardstown, on the Illinois River, and thence pro- 
ceed to Rock Island. At the same time he sent information 



97 

•of the Indian ''outbreak'' to Gen'l Gaines, connuander of 
the IJ. S. troops at Jefferson Barracks, and also to Gen'l 
Clark, Superintendent of Indian Affairs at St. Louis, and 
asked their co-operation in efforts to eject the Indians from 
tlie State, peaceably if possible. 

The Governor's call for volunteers was answered in a few 
days by 2,000 hardy patriots, mounted, armed, and eager 
for Indian scalps. At Beardstown, and a camp near Rush- 
ville, they were divided into two regiments, an odd battalion 
and a spy battalion. James D. Henry was elected Colonel of 
(»ne of the regiments and Daniel Leib, Colonel of the other. 
Major Nathaniel Buckmaster was placed in command of 
the odd battalion, and oNIajor Sam Whiteside of the spys, 
all under Genl Joseph Duncan as Brigadier General. 

That motlev mob left the vicinitv of Rushville on the 
1st of June for the seat of war accompanied by Gov. Rey- 
nolds as Commander-in-chief, and his staff'. In the mean- 
time Genl Gaines, had reached Fort Armstrong some days 
before with six companies of IT. S. infantry and met the 
volunteers — he traveling by steamboat— eight miles below 
the mouth of Rock River, and there they all remained over 
night. The next morning. June 25th, the combined forces, 
aggregating about 2,500 men, moved up Rock River, on the 
south side, to Vandruff's Island where they expected to 
find the enemy in force. Genl Gaines proceeded with his 
boat to the foot of the island and fired upon its vine-matted, 
brushy surface several rounds of grape shot. Just then 
Gov. Reynolds, Commander-in-chief of the Illinois forces, 
was suddenly taken sick and going aboard the boat, went 
to bed. 

After the grape shot exercise Genl Duncan's militia 
crossed over to the island and groping their way through 
the tangled bushes, discovered no enemy. They then 
crossed Rock River higher up at a ford, and charged upon 
Saukenuk, the ancient Sac village, only to find it deserted; 
the noble sons and daughters of the forest, three or four 
hundred strong, having slipped out during the night across 
-7 ^ ^ " • 



98 

the Mississippi aud camped twelve niiles below. Gov. Rey- 
nolds recovered; and the volunteers, disappointed and 
vexed, wreaked their vengeance upon the vacant huts by re- 
ducing them to ashes. 

In obedience to a peremptory demand by Genl Gaines,. 
in a few days Black Hawk, with twenty-seven of the prin- 
cipal warriors of his band, came to Fort Armstrong, and 
there made a treaty with Gen'l Gaines and Gov. Reynolds, 
in which they solenmly agreed that they would return to 
the west side of the river, and not again recross it without 
permission of the President ; that they would exclude Brit- 
ish agents from their tribe, and would permit the United 
States to build forts and establish post routes in their 
reservation on the west side. In return, the United States 
would guarantee to the Sacs and Foxes and their allies 
permanent and peaceable possession of their western lands. 
A quantity of corn and other provisions was then given 
to the dusky warriors, who retired to the Avest side, and 
the volunteers were mustered out of service and returned 
to their homes. Thus ended the first, and bloodless, cam- 
paign of the famous Black Hawk war. 

A friend of the British, entertaining the bitterest hatred 
for the despoilers of his village and fields and hunting 
grounds. Black Hawk left Fort Armstrong in a sulky 
mood, dissatisfied and meditating future vengeance. 

Foiled in his purpose and humiliated he proceeded with 
his Avarriors up the river and attacked a party of twenty- 
eight Menominees encamped on an island opposite Prairie 
dn Chien, and killed them all but one, Avho made his es- 
cape. Those Indians, Avith some Sioux, had the year be- 
fore attacked the Sacs ; "but Avere f riendh^ to the AA'hites. 

7 < 

and AA^ere then under protection of the United States gar- 
rison near that place. After the massacre, Gen'l Street, 
the Indian Agent, made a formal demand upon Black 
HaAA^k to deliver to the commander of Fort CraAvford the 
murderers of the Menominees, to Avhich the haughty old 
Avarrior returned an ansAver of contempt and defiance. 



99 

After makijig the treaty with Black Hawk at Fort Ariu- 
strong, Gov. Reynolds accompanied Gen'l Gaines, by boat, 
to St. Louis, and from there returned to his home at Ca- 
hokia. He then changed his place of residence to Belle- 
ville, having had that removal in contemplation for some 
time. There was then no law requiring the Governor of 
the State to reside at the State Capitol; and he remained 
there during the sessions of the Legislature only, for con- 
venience in conducting public business and from choice. 

Relieved of all apprehension of further molestation by 
the Indians, the frontier settlers replanted their corn and 
cultivated it, and in the fail gathered their crops, and 
passed the following winter in security and comfort. 

Upon adjournment of the Legislature, in February, 1831, 
Mr. Snyder returned to his farm, well satisfied with the 
course he had pursued as a public servant, and also well 
content to remain at home henceforth, and give to his 
business and his family his entire attention. With renewed 
enthusiasm he resumed his professional labors to make up 
the time lost at Vandalia, and success rewarded his dili- 
gence. He was, however, strongly inclined to offer his 
services, as a soldier, when the Governor called for volun- 
teers ; but the demands of his clients, his personal interests 
and the welfare of his family, compelled him to check his 
patriotic ardor and forego the "bubble reputation." 

The winter of 1831-32 was comparatively mild and 
pleasant, and was passed by the people in unusual quietude, 
without Indian alarms, and free from the din and wran- 
gling of a political campaign, or the annoyance of a session 
of the Legislature. It was followed by an early and pro- 
pitious spring, with most encouraging indications of con- 
tinued peace and prosperity. Business in every branch 
of industry was buoyant. Farmers everywhere were busy 
preparing their lands for sowing and planting, when sud- 
denly the country was again startled by reports of another 
Indian invasion similar to that of the spring before, but 
of far fjreater magnitude. 



100 

On the 6th of April, 1832, Black Hawk, with his band of 
400 warriors and their squaws and children regardless of 
his solemn promise of the year before, crossed the Missis- 
sippi and re-occupied his old village site below Rock Island, 
•creating consternation and alarm among the settlers there. 
That violation of the stipulations of his treaty made 
with Gen'l Gaines and Gov. Reynolds, Black Hawk 
a,fterwards attempted to excuse by stating that he 
merely desired to pass through Illinois to join his friends, 
the ^\"innebagos, in Wisconsin Territory, and there raise 
A crop of corn during the summer, when he would again 
return to the west. 

Discussion of Black Hawk's motives and intentions; or 
arguments for or against justification of his action; or 
sketches of his personal history and antecedents, are ob- 
viously beyond the scope of this memoir. Nor will its limits 
permit a detailed account of the famous "war" that fol- 
lowed his second return to the State. However, a briefly- 
stated outline of the course, management and results of 
Iiostilities caused by his invasion, is unavoidable in these 
pages in order to maintain the integrity of historical se- 
quences ^vithin the stated period embraced between the 
years 1817 and 1842.=^ 

There is little doubt that Black Hawk had received from 
the Winnebagos east of the Mississippi encouragement, if 
not definite promises of their aid in his design to regain 
possession of his old village, where he was born and ha<l 
passed all his life, and of his fields, and graves of his an- 
cestors near by. And that aid would probably have been 
rendered him willingly but for the prompt call of Gov. 
Reynolds, and the overwhelming number of volunteers who 
quickly responded to it. Gen'l Henry Atkinson, of the 
I'ogular army, had recently arrived at Fort Armstrong with 

* For fvill and reliable details of Black Hawk's career, and of 
the manner of his final expulsion from Illinos, the reader is referred 
to the able and exhaustive work of Frank E. Stevens, entitled The 
Black Hawk War, the most accurate and complete history of that 
noted Indian warrior, and the times in which he figured, yet written. 



101 

400 U. S. infantry for the purpose of enforcing Col. Street's 
demand upon Black Hawk to deliver to him the Indians 
of his band who had, the summer before, nnirdered the 
twenty-seven Menominees on the island near Fort Craw- 
ford. On learning that the Indians had crossed over to 
this side, Gen'l Atkinson hurriedl}- despatched n letter 
to Gov. Reynolds, informing him of the presence of 
hostile Indians on Rock River, and stating, ''The regular 
force under my command is too small to justify me in 
pursuing the hostile party," with a request to the Gover- 
nor to come to his aid "with Illinois militia. 

On the 16th of April, Gov. Reynolds published a call 
for " a strong detachment of militia," to rendezvous at 
Beardstown within six daj^s. The patriots heard the call 
and came from all quarters, and from every station of 
life; some afoot, but the greater number on horseback, 
bringing their blankets and such arms and accoutrements 
as they had at hand. Before expiration of the six days 
1,935 able bodied men were assembled at BeardstoAvn ready 
for active service. They as speedily as possible, divided 
into four regiments, an odd battalion and a spy battalion, 
under connnand of Samuel Whiteside as brigadier general. 
In addition, the Governor accepted two independent mount- 
ed battalions of 200 each, one commanded by Major Josiah 
Stillman, the other by ]\Iajor David Bailey, and assigned 
ihem specially to guard the settlements between the Illinois 
and Rock Rivers. As in the first campaign, the Governor 
as Commander-in-chief accompanied "the boys," Avith a 
full staff of Colonels, as follows: Cols. J. T. B. Stapp and 
James M. Chadwick, aides; Col. Sam Christy, of St. Louis, 
commissarv general; Col. AA^illiam Thomas, of Jackson- 
ville, (juartermaster general ; Col. James Turners paymaster 
general ; Col. Vital Jarrott, adjutant general ; Col. Cyrus 
Edwards, chief ordnance officer, and Rev. Reclick Horn, 
chaplain. The Colonel of the First regiment was John De 
AVitt ; of the Second, Jacob Fry; of the Third, John Thomas, 
and of the Fourth, Sanuiel ]\[. Thompson. The odd battal- 



102 

ion was led by Major Nathaniel Buckmaster, and the spys 
by Major John D. Henry. 

Thus began the second campaign of the Black Hawk 
war: without plan or system; with no conception of disci- 
pline or subordination, the A^olunteers regarded the expe- 
dition as merely a pleasant outing at the State's expense. 
Illustrative of the Commander-in-chief's ideas of military 
regulations, the following instance is related by Bonham, 
in his sketch of Gov. Reynolds.^ ''Our school teacher, 
Charles Henderson, who had taught our country school for 
three winters in Ohio, emigrated to Illinois in the spring 
of 1832. He came on horseback; arrived just at the time 
when enlistments were being made and men were being 
hurried forward to the place of rendezvous. He became 
a 'camp follower;' came up with the army at Beardstown, 
was presented to the Governor, told him that he came to 
see the country, and if there was any service he could 
render, himself and horse were at the service of the State. 
'Yes,' said the Governor, 'I can take you as a volunteer 
aide; we want a s:ood manv of that kind now.' 'Well, 
Governor, that will suit me,' said Charley; 'AYhat are the 
duties of the position!' 'Well,' said the Governor, 'go 
along, feed your horse from the subsistence department, 
yourself at my quarters, assist me some with my writing, 
help the quartermaster and commissary when they call on 
you, and when we get to where there is any fighting to be 
done, pitch in and fight like hell.' " 

Fleeing settlers came into Beardstown daily, reporting 
the Indians moving rapidly up the valley of Rock River, 
laying the country waste as they went. Instead of pro- 
ceeding by forced marches to Peoria, thence north to in- 
tercept them, the Governor led his army to the Yellow 
Banks on the Mississippi, fifty miles below Rock Island. 
The spring was unusually backward, cold and wet ; the 
streams had overflowed their banks ; the ground was water- 
soaked and muddy, and, worse than all, the men had 

* Fifty years' Recollections. By Jeremiah Bonham, Peoria. 1883. p. 37 



103 

scarcely anything' to eat. IMeii and horses had to swim 
Henderson river, and while rafting- the wagons over it, 
two of them and a horse were lost. Arriving at the Yel- 
low Banks, with provisions exhausted, the volunteers well- 
nigh fasted for three days, when the steamboat William 
AVallace arrived from St. Louis loaded with provisions. 
The army then moved up to Rock Island and joined Gen- 
eral Atkinson, where, on the 7th of May the Illinois 
militia men were mustered into the service of the United 
States. On the same day Colonel Za chary Taylor, with 800 
U. S. infantry and a detachment of artillery arrived from 
Fort Crawford and reported for service to General Atkin- 
son. On the 9th of ]\[ay, the consolidated army, 3,300 
strong, under command of General Atkinson, started up 
Kock River in pursuit of the Indians, the regulars and 
infantry in keel boats, and the volunteers on land. Al- 
though the volunteers had been mustered into the service 
of the United States and were part of the IT. S. army, and 
Revnolds was no longer in authoritv, he and his staff of 
Colonels continued "along with the boys" the greater part 
of the campaign, for which time they were paid by the 
general government, the Governor receiving the pay of a 
i\Iajor General in the regnilar army, and each member of 
his staff' the pay of a Colonel. 

General Atkinson ordered the volunteers to halt at 
Prophetslown and there await his arrival w^ith the boats 
and artillery ; but, thirsting for glory, or rest, and unaccus- 
tomed to obeying orders, ''the boys" burned Prophetstown 
and went on forty miles farther to Dixon's Ferry. The 
first opportunity for military renown offered to the 111- 
inoisans occurred at the head of Old ^Nlan's Creek, since 
known as "Stillman's Run"— twelve miles from Dixon's 
Ferry. Rumors of the presence of Indians in that vicinity 
having reached the camp, ^lajor Stillman asked permission 
to go out there and reconnoitre ; whereupon Governor Rey- 



104 

Holds* issued an order, dated Dixon's Ferry, May 12th, to* 
Major Stillman, ''to proceed without delay to the head of 
Old Man's Creek, where it is supposed there are some 
hostile Indians, and coerce them into submission.'' 

Next morning- early Major Stillman, with 275 men. left 
the army and started on his mission of coercion. On the 
evening of the 14th as he was going into camp for the night 
on Old Man's Creek, with everything in confusion, and no 
camp guards or pickets detailed, three unarmed Indians, 
bearing a white flag came to them. While they were try- 
ing to make themselves understood, five armed Indians 
appeared on the ridge a mile off in the prairie, evidently 
awaiting return of the bearers of the white flag. 

Immediately, without orders or leader, a number of the 
volunteers mounted their horses, not yet unsaddled, and 
rushed across the prairie after the five Indians who, re- 
treated, "after displaying a red flag, the emblem of defi- 
ance and war; but were overtaken and three of them 
slain, "t The volunteers who had not joined in the pur- 
suit of the five armed Indians, jealous of the success of 
those who did, in order to get even with them, concluded to 
kill the three unarmed prisoners who had, trusting to the 
honor of the whites, come in with the flag of truce. They 
managed to kill one of them, but the other two escaped in 
the confusion and darkness. 

Black Hawk, with part of his command and a few non- 
combattant Pottawatomies visiting him, was near by at 
the mouth of Sycamore Creek. Disappointed and dis- 
heartened by refusal of the Winnebagoes and Pottawato- 
mies to join him, and aware that he Avas pursued by a large 
force, and seeing the utter hopelessness of his raid, he con- 
cluded to return to the Avest side of the ^Mississippi as ex:- 
peditiously as possible. Surprised by the arrival at Old 
Man's Creek of Major Stillman 's battalion, which he be- 
lieved to be the advance guard of General Atkinson's entire 

* Majors Stillman and Bailey not yet having been mustered into 
the U. S. service were still under the Governor's authority. 

t Ford's History of Illinois, p. 118. 



105 

army, he sent a white tiag by tliree unarmed warriors to 
make terms with the General and obtain permission to re- 
tire from the State peaceably. The two surviving Indians, 
hastily retreating from the prairie, closely followed by the 
gelling, shooting pursuers, alarmed Black Hawk's warriors 
in camp. Believing their overtures for peace had been re- 
jected and that the whole army of the whites Avas moving 
upon them, they snatched up their arms and hurriedly 
mounting their ponies, boldly dashed out into the prairie 
to meet their assailants. Surprised at the numbers and 
impetuosity of the red enemy emerging from the brush, 
the pursuing, exultant party of volunteers wheeled their 
horses and fled for their lives. Like a tempest they swept 
through the disordered camp of their comrades, shouting to 
them to follow and save themselves if possible. Panic- 
stricken, the militiamen stood not on the order of their 
going, but mounting their tired horses they left foi' Dixon's 
Ferry in a tumultuous rout, with the Indians, yelling like 
demons, in hot pursuit. 

Capt. John G. Adams, of Tazewell county, and less than 
a dozen other brave, cool-headed men, who had not lost 
their wits or their courage, made a gallant attempt to rally 
their fleeing comrades and induce them to make an effort 
to repel the Indian attack. In the rear of the frightened, 
flying host, they gallantly stood and met the enemy, only 
to be mercilessly butchered by the furious, victorious 
savages. 

Darkness having fortunately set in favored the flight of 
the coercionists, and in a little more than an hour the 
swiftest of them dashed into headquarters at Dixon's 
Ferry, and from that on until early dawn they straggled 
in, each new arrival reporting that all the balance were 
massacred and scalped. In that disgraceful and humiliat- 
ing affair the Indians engaged numbered about iifty. and 
oi Stillman's battalion of 275 men, eleven were killed and 
two wounded, and all of his camp equippage was lost. Very 
early next morning General Whiteside , with two regiments 



106 ' 

of mounted men, repaired to the scene of the disaster, but 
no Indians could be found. The bodies of the eleven dead, 
scalped and horribly mutilated soldiers were gathered up 
and buried in one large grave in the prairie where they 
fell,*" and the General and his men returned to Dixon's 
Ferry. 

The etfect of Stillman's defeat was a marked change iii 
the spirit and temper of both belligerents. The Indians, 
to that time, had confined their depredations to destroying 
(3abins and fences, and taking such live stock belonging to 
settlers as they needed for sul)sistence, but had refrained 
from killing any of the whites. The cowardly murder of 
their unarmed bearer of a white flag, and brutal rejection 
— as they viewed it— of their overtures for permission to 
leave the State peaceabh% inflamed their resentment, and 
Iheir easy victory^ over a vastly superior force emboldened 
them to seek revenge for their slain warriors- They di- 
vided into small bands to evade pursuit, and scattered in 
different directions over the country, murdering unpro- 
tected settlers, burning their cabins, killing their stock 
Jind carrying off two young girls, the IMisses Hall, who 
were afterwards ransomed for goods and money amount- 
ing to $2,000. 

One of their most atrocious murders was that of Felix 
St. Vrain, Indian agent for the Sacs and Foxes at Rock 
Island. General Atkinson sent him with a few men to 
take despatches to Fort Armstrong, on the 22d of May. 
On the way IMr. St. Vrain met a party of Indians led by a 

* That unmarked grave was discovered in 1900. and probably con- 
tains the remains of Capt. Adams and the eight valiant men who 
fell hy his side in their vain effort to check the Indian advance, 
namely; Sergeant John Walters. Corporal Bird W. Ellis, Tyrus M. 
Childs. Joseph B. Farris, all four from Fulton County. Isaac Perkins, 
David Kreeps, Zadok Mendinall, of Tazewell County, and corporal 
James Milton of Decatur. Three other soldiers were slain in at- 
tempting to escape. Joseph Draper, James Doty, and Gideon Munson, 
a government scout. 

The Illinois legislature in 1901 appropriated $5,000 for a monument 
to commemorate the valor of Capt. Adams and those who with him 
sacrificed their lives in the manly discharge of their duty. A beau- 
tiful shaft was set in place near the prairie grave so long forgotten, 
at Stillman Vallev, and unveiled, with impressive ceremonies, on June 
11th, L902. 



107 

i.'hief iiaiiied Little Bear, with whom he had for years been 
<^n very friendly terms. That chief had adopted him as a 
brother and had^ frequently been the recipient of his hos- 
pitality at the aii'ency. AVithout warnin":, the treacherous 
Indians fell upon the little party of whites and killed and 
scalped them all.* 

The loss and scalping- of Stillman's eleven men, instead 
of firins: the militia with a spirit of venofeance, as was 
the case with the Indians, exerted upon the majority of 
them an oi;)posite effect. AVithout training- or discipline, at 
best but a half -organized rabble, they became completely 
demoralized and clamored to go home, claiming that their 
term of enlistment was about expired, that their crops and 
business at home demanded their attention, that thev were 
dissatisfied with their connnanding officers, that they did 
not enlist to chase Indians through the swamps of AVis- 
consin, and for various other reasons demanded their dis- 
charge from the service. They were, in fact, disappointed 
in their anticipations of a pleasant picnic or spree, with 
pay and rations ; were tired of their hard fare, and not 
certain about the safety of their scalps. For the Com- 
mander-in-chief's prowess and militarv abilitv thev. enter- 
tained no respect whatever, and General Sam AVhiteside , 
renowned as a dauntless bushranger and hand-to-hand 
Indian fighter, proved an utter failure as commander of a 

* Gen. George "W. Jones. ex-T'. S. Senator, etc.. writing from Du- 
buque. Iowa, to Mrs. George AV. Smith (of Chicago), granddaughter 
of Senator Elias K. Kane. Nov. 24. 1894, said: "And I can never 
forget tliat it was entirely through the potential influence and warm 
personal friendship of Senator "E. K. Kane who procured the appoint- 
ment of Agent of the Sac and Fox nations Of Indians at Rock Is- 
land, for my deceased brother-in-law, Felix St. Vrain; so we all 
feel great obligations. My dear accomplished brother-in-law was 
murdered by a war party of the Sac and Fox Indians, near Buffalo 
Grove, in Illinoi.s, in the spring, and early commencement of the 
Black Hawk war. Four or five other men were also killed at tht 
same time, and it was I who found the mangled body of Mr. St. 
Vrain three or four days after the massacre. His head, hands and 
feet were cut off his body, and the most of his flesh, which the 
famishing Indians ate. His heart was also cut out of his body, and 
cut up into small pieces and given to their young men and boys to 
swallow; he to be adjudged to make the best warrior who would 
swallow the largest piece without chewing. His head, hands and 
feet were used in their war dances as trophies of war." 



108 

brigade. He knew nothing of military tactics, and made 
no effort to assert control of his men. 

Many of the men had already gone home without leave^ 
and many more were openly preparing to follow them. 
Convinced that men in that dispirited frame of mind were 
nnreliable, and valueless for efficient service, General At- 
kinson ordered them all discharged, and they were mus- 
tered out of service at Dixon's Ferry and Ottawa on the 
27th and 28th of :\Iay, 1832. The disaffected among them 
left immediately to enjoy the genial comforts of their homes, 
but many who had enlisted from patriotic — or political 
—motives, or instigated merely by love of adventure, re- 
mained to again respond to the call of Governor Reynolds, 
that he immediately issued, for 2,000 more volunteers. 

The first to re-enlist were at once formed into a regiment 
of cavalry to protect the exposed settlers until the larger 
force, collecting at Beardstown and Hennepin, could be 
equipped, organized and put in the field. The officers 
chosen for that thirty-day police regiment Avere Jacob Fry, 
Colonel ; James D. Henry, Lieutenant Colonel ; and John 
Thomas, Major. The seven companies constituting the 
regiment elected for their Captains, Samuel Smith, Benja- 
min James, Elijah lies, Adam W. Snyder, Alexander C. 
Cox, William C. Ball and Alexander White. In reorgani- 
zation of the volunteer army — under the last call — many 
changes w^ere effected in the relative positions of officers 
and men. At the first call of the Governor for troops 
(April, 1832) Mr. Snyder enlisted as a private in Captain 
John Winstanley's company, and served in that capacity 
and subsequently as Adjutant of the regiment, until all 
were mustered out in ^lay. In the organization of the 
second army, ]Mr. Snyder was elected Captain, and Captain 
John Winstanley was chosen first lieutenant of his com- 
pany. The late Brigadier General Sam Whiteside was a 
private in the same company, along with Joseph Gillespie, 
James Semple, Benjamin Stephenson, Henry H. West, 
George D. Kinney, Francis Jarrott and John Thomas, lately 



109 

a Colonel, and shortly after promoted to INIajor of the regi- 
ment. Amono: the many other changes, Abraham Lincoln, 
a Captain in the first army, was a private of Captain lies' 
company in the second. 

The new levy of volunteers rendezvoused at Fort AVel- 
hurn on the Illinois river, near Peru, in LaSalle county, and 
there, on June 15, were formed into three brigades of three 
regiments each, with a spy battalion attached to each. Al- 
exander Posey was elected General of the first brigade, 
Milton Alexander of the second, and James D. ITenrv of 
the third. The first brigade comprised 1,000 men; the 
second 950 and the third 1,032. Five additional companies 
from Putnam and Vermilion counties, and an independent 
battalion from Wisconsin, led by Major Henry Dodge, 
there joined the army, which, with the U. S. regulars, ag- 
gregated over 5,000 men, all under command of General 
Atkinson. 

AVhile awaiting mobilization of the new armv the com- 
panics of Colonel Fry's regiment were so disposed as best 
to protect settlements the most exposed, and to escort sup- 
ply trains and express couriers. When on that duty Cap- 
tain Snvder was sent to escort Colonel Zacharv Tavlor 
from Ottawa to Dixon's Ferry by the following order: 

''Headquarters Right Wing, West Department, 

"Ottawa, 31st :\ray, 1832. 
*'Capi. A. W. Snyder, 

"Sir: You will proceed across the country with your 
company to Dixon's Ferry, in company with Colonel 
Tavlor, bv easv marches, and bv throwing out scouts, en- 
deavoring to ascertain whether the hostile Indians are still 
above the route you are directed to pursue. This informa- 
tion you may probably acquire by examining for trails, 
their direction and the numbers making them. 

"On your arrival at Dixon's Ferry, draw, if necessary, 
provisions for your return march, which you will take up 
the dav after vour arrival there. In coming back, make 



110 

further examinations as respects the hostile Indians, but 
in doing so avoid a contiict with very superior numbers, as 
even a very slight success on the part of the enemy would 
give him greater confidence and an accession of strength. 

''It is probable you will be absent four and a half or 
five days. 

[Signed] H. Atkinson, 

Brig, Genl. U. S. Army." 



Having escorted Colonel Zachary Taylor to Dixon's 
I'erry and returned, ''Captain Adam W. Snyder was sent 
to range through the country between Rock River and Ga- 
lena,* and whilst he was encamped not far distant from 
Burr Oak Grove, on the night of the 17th of June, his 
company was fired upon by the Indians. The next morn- 
ing he pursued them, four in number, and drove them into 
a sink hole in the ground, where his company charged on 
them and killed the whole of the Indians, with the loss of 
one man mortally wounded. As he returned to his camp, 
bearing his wounded soldier, the men suffering much from 
thirst, scattered in search of water, when they were sharply 
attacked by about seventy Indians, who had been secretly 
watching their motions, and awaiting a good opportunity. 
His men, as usuual in such cases, were taken by surprise, 
and some of them commenced a hasty retreat. Captain 
Snyder called upon General Whiteside , then a private in 
his company, to assist him in forming his men. The gen- 
eral proclaimed in a loud voice that he Avould shoot the first 
man who attempted to run. The men were soon formed 
into ranks. Both parties took position behind trees. Here 
General Whiteside , an old Indian fighter, and a capital 
marksman with a rifle, shot the commander of the Indians, 

* From the Galenian of June 20, 1832: 

"June 13th— At about 12 m. Col. John Thomas from St. Clair County, 
Illinois, and Captain A. W. Snyder with about 20 volunteers, came 
from Gen. Atkinson's headquarters to this place (Galena). They 
brought intelligence that a move was shortly to V)e made ag-ainst the 
Indians.— that two companies of regular troops under command of 
Major Riley had come to Kellogg's old place to remain till further 
orders." 



Ill 

and they from that nioineut began to retreat. As they 
were not pursued, the Indian loss was never ascertained, 
but the other side lost two men killed and one wounded. 
Captain Snyder, General AVhiteside . and Colonel (now 
General) Semple are particularly mentioned as having be- 
haved in the most honorable and courageous manner in 
both these little actions. ' '* 

Patterson gave, at the time, in the Galenian, Dr. Phil- 
laeo's paper, substantially the same account of the Burr 
Oak Grove actions, and added: "Soon after, Major Riley^ 
with a small force of regulars, came up, and after consul- 
tation with Captain Snyder, it was deemed best not to fol- 
low the retreating Indians, as their route probably led to 
the main army of Black Hawk."t 

Major Riley, here mentioned, belonged to Colonel Zach- 
arv Tavlor's command of U. S. regulars, then at Dixon's 
Ferry. 

Goveror Reynolds, writing to Governor Edwards from 
Fort Wilburn, June 22d, 1832, said: ''Snyder had a fight 
with the Indians; lost 3 vols.— Ben. Scott, McDaniel and 
^lacomson, and killed A Indians ; at least there were 4 
killed. "§ Twenty-three years later Governor Reynolds, 
in his autobiography, gave a full detailed account of the 
Burr Oak Grove skirmishes, differing in some material re- 
spects f^'om those given by Governor Ford and Mr. Patter- 
son, but accorded most ample credit to "the brave and 
efficient company under command of equally brave and 
efficient officers. "If 

Burr Oak was but another name for Kellogg 's Grove. 
The skirmish with the Idians in that vicinity by a portion 
of Capt. Snyder's company, unduly colored for political 
effect in the account given of it by Governor Ford, was in 
its results an insignificant affair, though serious enough to 
cause the death of three volunteers. After Capt. Snyder's 

* Ford's History of Illinois, p. 124. 

1 Autobiography of Black Hawk. By J. B. Patterson. Oquawka. 
111.. 1882. p. 172. 
§ Edwards Papers, p. ."90. 
H Life and Times, by John Reynolds, 1855, pp. 377-381. 



112 

men were surprised, on their return to camp, by the In- 
dians in ambush, there was really no further fighting, each 
side remaining at bay watching the other, with firing at 
long range until the Indians left. No Indian chief was 
shot by General AA^hiteside , or. so far as is knoAvn, by any 
one else. From the fact that a white horse on which an 
Indian, presumably the leader of the band, was mounted, 
was afterwards seen without a rider, it was inferred that 
that Indian was killed. 

The folloAving account of the skirmish from Mr. Steven's 
recent History of the Black Haivk War is probably as ac- 
curate as any yet published: 

"On the night of June 15th, the troops were snugly en- 
sconced in the various buildings, after sentinels had been 
picketed about eighty yards out at different points of the 
compass around the camp. The night was cloudy and 
dark, though intermittentlv illuminated with flashes of 
lightning, rendering possible a sight of the surroundings 
during those periods. Near midnight the presence of the 
enemy was detected by a sentinel, who, in the instantane- 
ous period allowed him, attempted to run the Indian 
through with his bayonet, so close had he crawled, but the 
flash of light was so brief that the sentinel missed his mark 
and only rubbed the Indian's arm. Dropping his gun, the 
sentinel clinched with his adversary, and by reason of su- 
perior strength was rapidly mastering him, and would soon 
have had him prisoner but for another flash which discov- 
ered two other Indians within twenty feet, making for the 
rescue as rapidly as the impenetrable darkness would per- 
mit. Quickly releasing his antagonist, the sentinel ran 
to camp, shouting 'Indians! Indians!' while the Indians 
pursued him as far as they dared. With a shot into the 
darkness they turned and fled, leaving the men in camp to 
lie on their arms after that until morning. 

"From the fact that one horse was stolen during the 
night, color was given to the theory that plunder was the 



113 

sole aim of the enemy's presence, but events of the follow- 
ing day exploded it. 

"Early in the morning, Captain Snyder took a detach- 
ment of men and pursued the enemy's trail in a southwest- 
erly direction, hoping to overtake and punish him before 
escape Avas possible. For twenty miles it was followed in 
vain, but Capt. Snyder would not permit it to be aban- 
doned, and wise indeed was his decision, for, after a few 
more rods of travel, the detachment came upon four of 
the Indians preparing a meal in a deep ravine just ahead. 
Flight by them in a circuitous, back-track, manner was in- 
stantly taken, which nearly bafHed the troops, but after 
another weary but excitig chase, they were again discov- 
ered half a mile ahead climbing a high hill Avithin three 
miles of camp at Kellogg 's Grove. The troops were de- 
layed in their pursuit by a deep and muddy creek, but on 
finallv crossing it discovered the Indians firmly intrenched 
in a deep gulch, where in a sharp hand-to-hand encounter 
all four were killed^ with loss to the whites of one man, 
private AVilliam B. ]\Iecomson (or ]\Iekemson), who re- 
ceived two balls in the abdomen, inflicting a mortal Avound. 
AYhile the engagement lasted it was as fierce and wricked a 
frontier fight as has ever been recorded, and in the many 
shots exchanged by the Indians, the marvel is that the loss 
to the wdiites was no greater. But poor IMecomson received 
the only effective ones. 

"A litter w^as constructed of poles and blankets, upon 
which the wounded man was placed, and, carried by his 
comrades, he was conveyed toward camp. In ministering 
to his needs, his bearers were compelled to deliver their 
guns and horses to the keeping of others, the exchange and 
relief causing some delaj" and a little temporary confusion. 
Men were necessarily scattered along with no regard for 
order, the troops were flushed wdth the first victory of the 
campaign, and while danger was to be at all times appre- 
hended, having disposed of the enemy, the presence of 
other Indians was not a very strong probability. Thus 
-8 



114 

the men marched along for three quarters of a mile, when 
the dying man asked for a brief rest and a cup of water. 
As no fresh water was carried, two squads were detailed 
by Captain Snyder to search for some. General White- 
side , First Sergeant Nathan O. Johnston, and Third Ser- 
geant James Taylor Avent off to one side, while Dr. Richard 
Roman, Benjamin Scott, Second Corporal Benjamin Mc- 
Daniel, Dr. Francis Jarroft and Dr. I. M. McTy. Cornelius 
searched the other side for water with which to quench the 
dying man's thirst. AVhile the last named squad was 
moving slowly down a ridge to a point having a bushy ra- 
vine on each side, it was fired on by a large party of In- 
dians, instantly killing Benjamin Scott and Benjamin IMc- 
Daniel and slightly w^ounding Dr. Cornelius. The three 
survivors retreated while the Indians, estimated from 50 to 
90 in number, hideously yelling, rushed upon poor ]\Iecom- 
son and chopped oft' his head with a tomahawk; then, 
wheeling, they directed their fire upon the main body of the 
whites, who vrere somewhat scattered as stated. Closing 
in as well as possible, the detachment fell back in good 
order, formed, and returned a brisk fire, which checked 
the enemy 's advance. Quickly following up the advantage 
gained. Captain Snyder moved rapidly forward, bringing- 
his men at close range with the enemy, and making the 
engagement general. Trees were many times used for pro- 
tection. During the thickest of the fight the apparent 
leader of the Indians, mounted on a white horse, rode back- 
ward and forward, urging his men w^ith shouts and ges- 
tures, but the intrepid volunteers were pouring lead into 
the ranks of the Indians with such deadly effect that they 
were gradually forced back. After a little the white horse 
was seen leaving the field riderless; at the same time the 
Indians temporarily wavered, and the whites pushed their 
line closer. The Indians, having evidently lost their 
leader, sullenly retired out of range, and Captain Snyder 
held his advanced position. 

Major Thomas had in the meantime volunteered to go. 



115 

alone, to Kellogg 's Grove— less than three miles distant — 
for reinforcements from Major Riley, and though the trip 
was perilous in the extreme, he made it safely, returning in 
an incredibly short time with the reinforcements. When 
they arrived, Capt. Snyder had driven the Indians to the 
timber and was anxious to press his advantage, but the late- 
ness of the hour prevented. He then insisted on camping 
on the spot for the night, that he might pursue his advant- 
age in the morning, but IMajor Riley persuaded him to re- 
turn to camp at Kellogg 's, which he reluctantly did, after 
gathering up the dead for burial the following day. 

"Early the following morning. Captain Snyder, with his 
full company, returned to the scene df the previous day's 
engagements in search of the enemy, but he was nowhere 
to be found, and the company at once returned to camp, 
where it remained a few days longer, by which time the 
new levies, having been rapidly massed at Dixon's Ferry 
for the final struggle. Captain Snyder marched to that 
point and his company was mustered out of service by 
Colonel- Taylor on the 21st of June. 



? 7 



CHAPTER VI.. 

The Black Hawk War continued — Capt. Snyder's Company mustered 
out of service — Major Dement's fight at Kellogg's Grove — March 
of the army up Rock River — Defection of the Volunteers — Gen'l 
James D. Henrj^ — Duplicity of the Winnebagoes — Black Hawk's 
trail discovered — He is pursued, and the war ended in his defeat 
and capture. 

The reorganized army having orders to take the field, 
terminated the period of enlistment of Col. Fry's regiment, 
and by order of Gen'l Atkinson it was mustered out of 
service at Dixon's Ferry, on the 21st of June, 1832. Col. 
Pry and several of his men joined the new army, but the 
large majority of them, including Capt. Snyder, departed 
at once for their homes in the southern part of the State. 
Thus closed Capt. Snyder's military career — enlisting as a 
private in Capt. AYinstanley 's company on April 18th, ap- 
pointed Adjutant of the First Regiment on April 29th, mus- 
tered out of service at the mouth of Fox River May 28th, 
re-enlisted and elected Cai)tain on May 29th, had a fight 
with Indians on June 15th, and again mustered out on 
June 21st. 

By order of Col. Taylor, Major John Dement and bat- 
talion of 150 men, took an outpost position at Kellogg 's 
Grove, where they found, a deserted cabin built of heavy 
logs in three compartments. In the rear were some log 
stables, and a brush enclosure in which they turned their 
horses Avhen not in use. Mr. Funk, of McLean County, 
arriving there, from Galena, in the evening reported having 
crossed, about five miles from the grove, the trail of four 
or five hundred Indians going north. Next morning a few 
Indians on horseback were seen on a distant elevation in 
the prairie. As usual, the frenzied volunteers, without 
orders or leader, mounted their horses and at full speed 
scurried across the prairie after fresh Indian scalps. Five 
of the Major's men, who had no. horses followed afoot 



117 

eager to see the fun of a fight or an Indian chase.* ]\Iajor 
Dement and Zadok Casey, suspicious of an Indian ambus- 
cade, galloped forward to try to arrest the mad advance 
of the mob, but utterly failed. The mounted Indians slowly 
retreated to a ravine overgrown with brush, in the far 
edge of the prairie where Black Hawk and the greater part 
of his band were concealed. On went the impetuous heroes 
until Avithin rifle shot of the thicket. 

^'When out the hellish legion sallied," 

with terrific yells and whoops, and a volley of bullets. The 
astonished white men instantly faced about and made 
speedy tracks for the timber they had just left, with the 
howling redskins at their heels. But for that log cabin in 
the Grove the Stillman episode would have been repeated 
in every disgraceful particular. In vain did Major Dement 
and Gov. Casej^ attempt to rally the terrified men to make 
a stand and check the advancing savages. They might as 
well have tried to stop a drove of stampeded horses. Reach- 
ing the Grove the terrified men hurriedly turned their 
horses into the brush enclosure, and huddled into the cabin 
that afforded them the protection of a block house. 

The Indians were too wary to attempt carrying the cabin 
by assault ; and circled around it at a respectable distance 
firing at the spaces between the logs, and shooting down the 
horses over the brush fence. The besieged soldiers watched 
them closely, and returned thqir fire whenever one chanced 
to come Avithin range of their rifles. The Indians, in a few 
hours, saw they were getting the worst of the fight, having 
lost several of their number, and after killing 47 of the 
volunteers' horses, sullenly withdrew. A few of the be- 
seiged soldiers were wounded, but none killed. The five 
footmen so anxious to see the fun, were, of course soon 
overtaken by the Indians, and expeditiously killed and 
scalped. They v/ere buried next day in one grave, not far 

* Reynolds' Life and Times, p. 3S9. 



118 

from the spot where they sacrificed their lives to their 
folly.* 

Before the swarm of furious naked Indians reached the 
Grove that morning, Major Dement despatched five mes- 
sengers on fleet horses to Dixon's Ferry, fifty miles away, 
for re-enforcements. AVhen the last one of the red enemy 
v/as out of sight the Major put out picket guards, and set 
about strengthening his position, fully expecting rencAval 
of the attack at night. Anticipating that the Indians 
would attempt at their next visit to burn his "fort," he 
covered the cabin roof with two hundred blankets saturated 
with water. But the Indians did not return. 

The rout of Stillman's battalion followed by disbanding 
of the first volunteer force, led the Indians to believe the 
v.^hites were whipped and had abandoned the war. Its effect 
upon the people of the State was to raise a storm of indig- 
nation and disgust and merciless criticism of all in control 
of military aft'airs. Unstinted abuse from every quarter 
was heaped upon Gov. Reynolds, Commander-in-chief, for 
his blundering incapacity, very much to his discouragement 
s.nd uneasiness. In despair, he confided his chagrin to Gov. 
Edwards, in a letter written at Fort Welburn, June 22d, 
as follows: "I wish you to inform my friends that I am 
* bullet proof.' I have done right, and care not for slander; 
that I go in for nothing; that as soon as the storm settles 
in my favor, which it is compelled to do, I will bid a long 
farewell to public life and live at home in peace. I am 
now before the people, I am in for my friends, but you and 

* Above account of the five unmounted volunteers is given upon the 
authority of Gov. John Reynolds, as related in his Life and Times. 
A different version of the incident, however, was given by Major 
Dement, who stated that three of his men who had been hunting for 
their horses, that strayed away during the night, were returning to 
camp afoot when overtaken by the horde of ad\^ncing Indians and 
killed. 

The authorities of Stephenson County, some time ago, caused to 
be erected a handsome monument, thirty-four feet in height, at Kel- 
log's Grove, in memory of the several white people killed by the 
Indians within the limits at that county. Among those thus com- 
memorated are three above mentioned of Major Dement's command, 
and the three of Capt. Snyder's company killed in his skirmish near 
the Grove, and Mr. Felix St. Vrain. 



119 

a few excepted, not one othei* will write or say one word 
in my favor. I do not want it, as I care very little about 
the result."* 

The gathering hosts of the second volunteer army con- 
vinced Black Hawk that the whites were not conquered, 
but that lie might be if he remained in their country much 
longer. Calling his scattered bands together he commenced 
a rapid movement to the AVisconsin hills, believing, no 
doubt, that the Illinois militia Avould not pursue him be- 
yond the limits of their own State. 

Gen'l Atkinson set his new^ army in motion on the 20th, 
21st and 22d of June. Gen'l Posey's brigade, the first to 
move out, meeting Major Dement 's couriers, hurried for- 
ward, and reached Kellogg 's Grove at sunset, having 
marched fiftv miles since morninir. Instead of advancing 
quickly and striking the retreating Indians a decisive blow, 
the army marched leisurely 75 or 80 miles up Rock River 
to the Burnt Village and there halted. 

Reports of the enemy's trail having been seen farther 
up the river, or east of it, were brought into camp, eman- 
ating chiefly from the company of treacherous Winnebagos 
who, with loud professions of friendship for the whites, 
joined the army at Dixon's Ferry, and Avere, in fact, cogni- 
zant of Black Hawk's plans, and were scheming to aid 
his escape. Gen'l Atkinson seemed bewildered and un- 
decided, and lost many days in useless reconnoitering. His 
new army became as thoroughly demoralized as was the 
first one; and from the first day's march towards Wiscon- 
sin began to disintegrate and melt aw^ay from wholesale 
desertions. Of the 3,850 volunteers enrolled at Dixon's 
Ferry, less than 2,000 answered roll call when the inarch 
was resumed from the Burnt Village. 

Their abandonment of the service was not due to lack 
of courage, but altogether to want of discipline and author- 
ity. No better material for an army could have been faund 
in the world. They were brave, honorable, patriotic men, 

* Edwards Papers, p. 590. 



120 

strong in ph^'sical power of endurance, and inured to the 
rcugh usages of frontier life. The most of them were de- 
scendants of yeomen who achieved renown at King's Moun- 
tain, Monmouth and Yorktown; and whose progeny later 
proved their heroism and valor at Buena Vista, Chepulte- 
pec, Chickamauga and Gettysburg. Unfortunately, the offi- 
cers in command of the volunteers— with some sterling ex- 
ceptions—from the Commander-in-chief down, were profes- 
sional politicians, office-holders and office-seekers, profound- 
ly ignorant of the military art, who knew nothing of dis- 
cipline, and made no attempt at enforcement of authority, 
from fear of becoming unpopular with "the boys'"' and 
losing their votes. As little, if any, restraint was exacted, 
the men felt no sense of responsibility or subordination, 
and no respect for the authority of their officers. They 
addressed the Commander-in-chief as "John," or "Old 
lianger," and their Generals, Colonels, and Captains famil- 
iarly as "Bill," "Jmi" or "Jack." They did as they 
pleased, came and went as they chose, and, on all occasions, 
freely expressed their views of the campaign, and criticisd 
the plans and orders of their commanders without reserve. 
The Commander-in-chief, Gov. Reynolds, and his staff of 
Colonels, vs^ho had all along followed ' " the boys ' ' around to 
see that they w^ere not imposed upon by their superiors, 
also becoming defected, or discouraged by the paucity of 
provisions and of glory, deserted "the boys" at the Burnt 
Village, and went to Galena, thence down to St. Louis, by 
beat, and on to their homes. With them also Avent Col. 
Sidney Breese and several others. Of the volunteer officers 
there w^as one who possessed the natural instincts of the 
soldier, and true conception of military duty. Ne-ither a 
politician, or office-seeker himself, he had the moral courage 
and firmness to maintain, when unhampered by incompe- 
tent superiors, strict discipline in his command, and in- 
spired his men with his own martial spirit. That man w^as 



121 

Gen'l Jiimes D. Henry,* whose genius and generalship 
brought the unequal and inglorious conllict to a speedy 
termination ; and whose course and conduct throughout the 
wretchedly bungled alt'air, rendered him, at its close, de- 
servedly the most popular man in Illinois. 

On the 4th of July the army was encamped on the banks 
of Lake Koshkoning, an expansion of Rock River, and there 
built a temporary fort. Then moved higher up the river 
and there again encamped. Provisions being nearly ex- 
hausted, Col. Ewing's regiment was, on the 10th of July, 
sent back to Dixon's Ferry for supplies, and to convey 
there Capt. Dunn, who had been accidentally and seriously 
wounded by a sentinel. Gen'l Posey was ordered, with his 
brigade, to Fort Hamilton to guard the frontier in that 
direction, and Gen 'Is Henry and Alexander were sent to 
join Major Dodge at Fort Winnebago and the portage 
between Fox and Wisconsin Rivers, while Gen'l Atkinson 
end the regulars fell back to Lake Koshkoning. 

Gen'l Henry, separated from the others, and command- 
ing the most advanced post, determined, regardless of 
orders to remain there, to take the course he thought best. 
Pie, however, narrowly escaped being duped by the wily 
AA^innebagos who brought the report, believed at the time 
to be reliable, that Black Hawk and his warriors were in 
camp on Cranberry lake, forty or fifty miles higher up 
Rock River. In council with Gen'l Alexander and IMajor 
Dodge, he announced his determination to move immediate- 
ly upon the enemy, and issued orders to have everything 
in readiness to start next day, the 15th of July, at noon. 

* James Dougherty Henry was a native of Pennsylvania, and came 
to Edwardsville, a poor, obscure young man, in 1822. He worked at 
shoemaking, and attended night schools where he learned reading, 
writing and arithmetic. He engaged in merchandising, and removed 
to Springtield, where he enlisted for the Black Hawk war. He was 
six feet tall, spare made, with dignified, soldierly bearing. He was 
quiet, modest and taciturn; kindly disposed, honorable and abso- 
lutely fearless. His peculiar reserve of manner and inclination to 
melancholy, or misanthropy, were probably due to the fact of his 
illegitimate birth. After the close of the Black Hawk war his health 
failed, and, with the hope of being benefited by change of climate, 
he went to New Orleans in 1833. There, unknown and alone, he died, 
of consumption, on the 4th of March, 1834. 



122 

With that intention, he disposed of the sick and disabled in 
his brigade, and with all superfluous baggage, that other- 
wise would retard his progress. When ordered to take up 
the line of march, next, day, Gen'l Alexander announced 
that his men refused to go a step farther, and Major Dodge 
reported his horses so jaded by their late hard service that 
he could not move. 

Gen'l Henry, incensed at such unexpected and inexcu- 
sable insubordination, declared he would go and attack 
the Indians if as many as fifty trusty men would volunteer 
to follow him. Just then Capt. Craig arrived with a com- 
pany of mounted men to join Major Dodge, who with that 
fresh accession to his battalion, was able to muster 150 men 
and horses fit for service. Gen'l Henry had in his own 
brigade about 450 mounted men in good condition, but on 
preparing to march with that force, he was dismayed to find 
some of his own men in open revolt, refusing to leave camp, 
excepting to return to their homes. A protest against the 
proposed expedition, signed by all the officers of Col. Fry's 
regiment excepting the Colonel himself, was presented to 
G.en'l Henry, by Lieutenant-Col. Theophilus W. Smith. The 
General's answer to that "round robin" was to immediately _ 
order every officer who signed that paper under arrest 
charged with mutiny, and he further ordered Col. Collins 
to guard them, as prisoners, and march them Avithout delay 
to Gen'l Atkinson's headquarters. "This," says Gov. Rey- 
nolds, "was the crisis— the governing pivot in the whole 
campaign— and Gen'l Henry was equal to the emergen- 
cy."* 

Fortunately for the honor of Illinois, Gen'l Henry Avas 
a soldier Avho kncAV his duty, and had the firmness to exe- 
cute it Avithout regard to opinions of "the boys," or any 
probable consequences to himself at the next election. The 
exercise of authority he displayed on that occasion Avas 
before unknoAvn in the A'olunteer army, and his evident 
determination to enforce obedience to his orders struck the 

* Reynolds' Life and Times, p. 403. 



123 

office seekers with consternation. Lieut. Col. Smith, who 
had presented the protest, hurried to the General's quar- 
ters, pleading ignorance of its purport when he signed it, 
and'begged permission to consult with the others who signed 
it. That request was granted, and in a short time they all 
came to the General and implored his pardon, some of them 
with tears trickling down their cheeks, and pledged their 
honor, if forgiven, to obey implicitly all future orders and 
regulations. Gen'l Henry received them kindly, and with 
dignity, permitting them to return to duty. He, however, 
sent what was left of Gen'l Alexander's brigade to Gen'l 
Atkinson as prisoners. 

With the remnant of his own brigade, 450 men, and 
Major Dodge's battalion numbering 225 more, Gen'l Henry 
set out in search of the enemy, without orders from the 
commanding General. On the evening of the third day 
of very difficult marching they camped on Rock River 
amidst the grandest scenery of that beautiful stream. There, 
three very friendly Winnebago Indians came in camp and 
again reported Black Hawk encamped on Cranberry Lake, 
a little higher up the river. Relying upon that apparent 
confirmation of former reports, the General prepared to 
move early next morning, and, by forced marches, surprise 
him. Having issued his orders and perfected all arrange- 
ments for the morrow, about dark he despatched Dr. Merry- 
man and a companion, with one of the lately arrived AA^in- 
nebagos, named "Little Thunder," as guide, to Gen'l At- 
kinson to apprise him of his movements. 

The Doctor, companion and guide, had proceeded down 
the valley about eight miles when, to their great surprise, 
ihey came upon the broad fresh trail of a large party of 
Indians going northwest. At that unexpected discovery 
Little Thunder much agitated, fled back to the camp to 
apprise his two confederates there that their deception was 
exposed. Doctor Merryman and companion also hastened 
back to report what they saw to the General, and arrived 
as Little Thunder was telling the same to the other Winne- 



124 

bagos in their own language; thereupon all three Indians 
hastily left the camp. But their escape was frustrated by 
Major iMurray ]\IcConnell, who, suspicious of some wrong 
motive on their part, brought them back to General Henry. 
Confronted with the evidence of their treachery, they con- 
fessed they came to the white soldiers to deceive them and 
send theman a wrong direction in order to give Black Hawk 
time to get away. To make amends for their perfidy — and 
thereby perhaps save their lives — they then told all they 
knew of Black Hawk's plans, and condition of his band, and 
of their anxiety to get back to the west side of the great 
river. Gen'l Henry humanely spared their lives and pro- 
tected them from the vengeance of his men. 

By early dawn on the morning of July 19th, the 650 
mounted men left their camp, abandoning five wagons and 
a quantity of cumbersome baggage not absolutely needed 
on the march and, by sunrise, came upon the trail of the 
fleeing Indians. Then commenced the long-delayed, earnest 
and unrelenting pursuit of the vicions savages that, in a 
few days, rid the State of Illinois of them forever. With 
but scant equippage, and more scanty provisions, the men 
who but a few days before had refused to advance another 
step, now, led by their stern commander, hurried forward 
until after dark, and then uncomplainingly laid on the 
wet ground in a drenching rain to sleep without shelter of 
any kind. At daylight next morning, unable to make 
fires, they breakfasted on raw bacon and wet flour, and 
continued the exciting chase. There was no loitering or 
lagging behind, but every man kept his place in the ranks 
ready at any moment for action. The Indians were not 
permitted to rest. They were starving and on the verge 
of exhaustion ; but their determined pursuers goaded them 
to still further exertion which they put forth hoping to 
find safety in the timbered hills of the Wisconsin River. 
Their trail was strewn with camp kettles, blankets, and 
ether articles, thrown away to facilitate their flight; and 
occassicnally a dead, or dying Indian, by the wayside, was 



125 

ghastly evidence of the dire extremity to which they were 
reduced. 

At the edge of the timber on the Wisconsin bluffs the 
liard-pressed warriors, for the first time, made a stand and 
gave battle; but only to gain time for their squaws and 
children to reach the river beyond. The volunteers had 
lost all their early timidity, and went into the fight like 
trained veterans. Their splendid soldierly conduct in that 
decisive engagement was worthy of the highest admiration. 
They routed the Indians, who left sixty-eight of their 
number dead on the field and fled dow^n the bluffs, across 
the swampy bottom and the river, into the high broken 
country on the northern side of the Wisconsin. The w^hites 
lost one man killed and eight wounded. When the battle 
commenced, Little Thunder and the other two Winnebagos, 
who had been taken along as guides, taking advantage of 
the confusion and noise, made their escape. All other 
AVinnebagos had been left behind as untrustworthy. About 
three o'clock in the night following the battle, an Indian 
with peculiarly loud, clear voice— who was noticed during 
the tight exhorting the warriors to renewed efforts— took 
a position on a point of the bluff not far aw^ay, and for 
some time harangued the whites in the Winnebago lan- 
guage ; but as the guides had fled, no one in the General 's 
camp understood w^hat he said, and concluded he w^as 
trjing to marshal the savages for another attack. 

Afterw^ards it was learned that he was Ne-a-Pope, next 
in command to Black Haw^k, sueing for peace. His people, 
he said, wished to surrender ; they w^ere starving, and dying 
of fatigue, and could no longer fight with the whites, and 
they begged to be permitted to return w^est of the Missis- 
sippi never again to recross it. 

Learning that Gen'l Henry was trailing the enemy and 
rapidly gaining on him, Gen'l Atkinson, with his regulars 
and the few volunteers who had not j^et deserted, followed 
him as expeditiously as possible, and arrived at Blue 
Mounds, in AVisconsin, the day after Gen'l Henry reached 



126 

that point in search of provisions. They Avere there joined 
by 450 regulars under Col. Brady, and, on the 26th of July, 
the united force, commanded by Gen'l Atkinson, resumed 
the march and crossed the Wisconsin on rafts constructed 
by the soldiers. Gen'l Atkinson, who regarded the volun- 
teers with supreme contempt — not without some justifica- 
tion—determined that all future glories in that war would 
be won by the regulars. Accordingly, in the order of advance 
he placed Col. Zach Taylor with his U. S. infantry in the 
lead, and Gen'l Henry and his volunteers, at the rear, to 
guard the baggage train, an indignity they submitted to in 
silence. On the 28th the army struck the trail of the fleeing 
Indians again, marked at every step by pathetic testimony 
01 their extreme distress and misery. Dead Indians were 
foimd at short intervals— five at one camping place — who 
had died of their wounds and starvation. 

About ten o 'clock of the fourth day after crossing the 
AA^iseonsin, the advance guard of the army reached the 
bluffs overlooking the Mississippi. The main body of In- 
dians had arrived at the river bank near the mouth of a 
small stream known as tlie Bad Axe, and a few had crossed 
to the west side. To divert Gen'l Atkinson's attention and 
gain time for his people to get across the Mississippi, Black 
ITawk and about twentv of his warriors feigned a stand 
for battle at the edge of the bluffs, whereupon Gen'l At- 
kinson placed his regulars in line, ready for a grand charge, 
when Black Hawk, to decoy him from the real position of 
his wretched band, retreated np the Mississippi bottom, fol- 
lowed by the regulars and Major Dodge's battalion. The 
keen military eye of Gen'l Henry, who was in the rear, 
saw the sharp strategem of Black Hawk leading Gen'l At- 
kinson astray, and detected the trail where the Indians had 
descended the bluffs to the left and proceeded across the 
bottom to the river- Without orders, he sent eight men 
down the trail to reconnoiter, and, dismounting his brigade 
— of 400— he followed quickly with them, and soon found 
the enemy. The eight men he had sent forward were fired 



127 

I'pon, and five of them were killed or wounded. He then 
gave the order to charge, obeyed with alacrity by his men, 
Avho drove the Indians from tree to tree, until they g-ained 
the river's bank. In the meantime Gen'l Henry sent his 
aide, IMajor Murray McConnell, to inform Cen'l Atkinson 
that he had found and engaged the warriors. 

The Indians, in their desperation and terror, crowded 
to the river bank, and many of them plunged into the water 
to SAvim to the other side. Others crossed a narrow channel 
of the ri\'Ter to a small willoAV-covered island nqt far from 
the shore. AVhile they were thus huddled together by 
the merciless rifles of the avengers in their rear, with but 
half a mile of water separating them from their refuge of 
safety, the steamboat Warrior, with a small company of 
soldiers aboard, commanded by one Capt. Throckmorton, 
appeared in the channel of the river. At the unexpected 
arrival of that new enemy, the poor, famished, cowering 
wretches on the bank raised a white flag of submission. The 
valliant Captain on the boat then ordered them to come 
aboard and formally surrender, an order they neither 
understood, or had means of complying with. As none of 
them went to the boat, the Captain gave them fifteen min- 
utes to remove their women and children; another order 
they could not comprehend, and could not possibly have 
obeyed if they did. At the expiration of the fifteen min- 
utes, he fired upon them at close range with a six-pound 
cannon charged with grape-shot, followed by volleys of 
musketry by the soldiers. He killed twenty-three Indians, 
men, women and children, and Avounded twice as many 
more; then his ammunition exhausted, humanely ceased 
firing and returned to Prairie du Chien to rest upon his 
laurels. 

Genl Henry made no halt, but pushed on, literally driv- 
ing the miserable Indians into the river. Those who had 
taken refuge on the small island were followed by the 
volunteers, wading the narrow channel up to their arm- 
pits in water, and there continued the carnage. Gen'l 



128 

Atkinson and his regulars arrived in time to lend a hand 
in the slaughter ; but to Gen'l Henry is due the credit of the 
great victory achieved at that final "battle" of the Bad 
Axe. On the island about a hundred and fiftv Indians, 
of both sexes and all ages, were massacred, and perhaps 
fifty squaws and children were spared and taken prisoners. 
The whites lost seventeen killed and twelve wounded. More 
than half of the enemy who attempted to SA^dm the river 
were droA\'ned, or shot in the water. 

Thus terminated the famed Black Hawk "war." For 
the expulsion from the State of 400 Indian warriors, en- 
cumbered by their squaws and children, 8,000 volunteers 
were enrolled; 1,500 U. S. regular soldiers put in the Held, 
2,000 human lives lost, at a total cost to the general govern- 
ment of over tAvo millions of dollars. 

Black Hawk, whose ruse was checked when Major Mc- 
Connel called Gen'l Atkinson from his pursuit, fled east- 
ward. A number of Winnebagos of that locality then 
anxious to prove their loyalty to the victorious whites, fol- 
lowed him and his little party to the Dalles of the Wisconsin 
river, and persuaded them to surrender. The plucky, vi- 
cious old warrior was brought to Prairie du Chien, thence 
sent to Fortress Monroe, with Ne-a-Pope and the Prophet, 
as prisoners of war, in April, 1833. In June they were 
taken through the eastern cities, where they paraded as 
heroes and were loaded with presents, and returned by 
way of the lakes, to their Iowa reservation. 

Highly colored, exaggerated accounts of Black Hawk's 
raid were daily sent to Washington and the eastern cities, 
not only by enterprising newspaper correspondents and 
designing demagogues, but by State officials in high author- 
ity whose object was to influence Congress in making 
speedy and liberal appropriations to pay expenses of the 
"war." So grave was the situation in Illinois represented 
to be, that President Jackson, after consultation with his 
cabinet, ordered Gen'l Winfield Scott to march there at once 
with 1,000 regular troops, and so urgent was the emergency 



129 

considered, that Gen'l Scott moved his force from Fortress 
Monroe to Chicago in the remarkably short time of eighteen 
days. Arriving himself on the Mississippi the "war" was 
over; but the U. S. soldiers met an enemy on the route, 
after leaving New York, far more formidable than any 
band of Sac and Fox Indians. It was the Asiatic cholera 
that had recently invaded the country at Halifax. It 
swept away a fourth of Gen'l Scott's men, and many citi- 
zens, on its way westward, and from Prairie du Chien 
continued its saturnalia of death do\Mi the Mississippi 
River. 



-9 



CHAPTER VII. , 

Gov. Edwards defeated for Congress by Charles Slade — Mr. Snyder 
re-elected to the State Senate — His removal from the American 
Bottom to Belleville — The , cholera in Belleville in 1833 — Death 
of Gov. Edwards — The eighth General Assembly — The "Falling 
Staxs" — Death of Mr. Slade by cholera — Reynolds and Snyder 
candidates for Congress — Gen'l Duncan deserts the Democrati^i 
party and joins the Whigs. 

The general election, on August 6th, 1832, followed a po- 
litical campaign in Illinois as interesting, if not as excit- 
ing, as that of the Indian campaign just terminated. .Three 
Congressmen were elected instead of only one as formerly. 
In the third, or southeastern district, Zadok Casey was 
the successful candidate. Joseph Duncan, who then resided 
in Jacksonville, was re-elected to represent the second, or 
Springfield district. In the first, or Belleville district, five 
candidates offered for the position, namely: Gov. Edwards, 
Charles Slade, Sidney Breese, Henry L. Webb and Charles 
Dunn. Mr. Slade was elected, the vote standing, for 
Slade, 2.470 ; for Gov. Edwards, 2,078 ; for Breese, 1,670 ; 
for Dunn, 1,020, and for Webb, 551. 

Charles Slade, now one of the forgotten statesmen of 
Illinois, was born in England, and brought when quite 
young, by his parents to Alexandria, Virginia. A¥hen a 
vouns^ man he came west Avith two brothers, Richard and 
Thomas, and settled in Carlyle, then a new toi^m in 
St. Clair County. His tAvo brothers remained single, but he, 
shortly after his arrival, married a Miss Kain, and from 
that union several children were born. One of his sons, 
named Richard, married a daughter of Judge Sidney 
Breese, and was a volunteer in the Mexican war during 
which he died at Santa Fe, New Mexico. Alfred, another 
son of Charles Slade, when scarcely grown, killed a man 
in Carlyle and fled to the western plains, where for some 
time he was in the employ of the Overland ]Mail Company. 
He drifted to the mountains and became one of the most 



131 

notorious desperadoes of that then lawless region, lie was 
credited with having committed twenty-six murders, and 
was finally hung by the vigilants in Virginia City, Mon- 
tana Territory, on January 4th, 1862. A graphic sketch 
of his career and execution is given by Mark Twain in his 
volume entitled "Roughing It." 

With a partner named Hubbard, Charles Slade engaged 
in the mercliantile business in Carlyle, the first merchants 
there, and for some years quite successful. Mr. Slade be- 
came one of the most prominent men in southern Illinois 
in politics as well as in business. He was elected to the 
lower house of the Legislature in 1820, and again in 1826. 
Klected to Congress in 1832 he attended the first term of 
the 23d Congress, and when returning home, in the vsum- 
mer of 1834, was stricken down with cholera, and died after 
a short illness, in Knox County, Indiana, near Vincennes. 
He was there buried and all trace of his grave is lost. He 
is described as an attractive, finely proportioned man, of 
good education and fair abilities, Avith some gift of oratory, 
pleasing address, and affable, friendly disposition that ren- 
dered him very popular. 

While Adam W. Snyder was yet ranging, with his com- 
pany, on the northern frontier of the State, his friends in 
St. Clair County announced him as a candidate for re- 
election to the State Senate ; and he was elected Avithout 
opposition, notAvithstanding the fact that, at the last ses- 
sion of the Legislature, he had voted for the Wiggins loan. 
The odium of that vote, however, may have been obscured 
by the bxstre of his conflict with the Indians at Kellogg 's 
GroA^e. At that time, in a greater degree than at present, 
military service rendered the State, or country, atoned 
in the estimation of the people, for almost any official, or 
personal, delinquency. 

Mr. Snyder's residence on the farm had become for many 
reasons, unsatisfactory and inconvenient, particularly so 
since he entered public life. The demands of his profes- 
sional and business affairs over a Avide area of the State, 



132 

and his protracted absence at Vandalia during the session 
of the Legislature, and then in the Black Hawk campaign, 
tended to estrange him from his home to the neglect and 
discomfort of his family. For when away his wife was 
left to get along the best she could with iservants, farm 
hands and guests, and the care of three small sickly chil- 
dren. To the usual endemic malarial disorders of the 
American Bottom, that in the summer and fall of 1832 
prevailed with more than ordinary severity, was added the 
cholera epidemic rapidly spreading over the country, mark- 
ing its course with horror and death. Mr. Snyder and fam- 
ily escaped that scourge, but few members of the household 
eluded the annual visitation of ague and bilious fever. 

Occupying the prominent position in the community that 
Mr. Snyder did, it is incomprehensible why he remained 
so long in that location, remote^ from his professional inter- 
ests, and so insalubrious as to endanger his life and that of 
each member of his family. An attack of bilious fever late 
in the summer of 1832 brought to him the full realization 
of his situation. ' ' We will all die, ' ' said he, ' ' if we remain 
longer among these pestilential swamps;" and he deter- 
mined then to leave the Bottom as soon as he could perfect 
arrangements, and remove to Belleville, the county seat 
of St. Clair, on the highlands, seven miles east of the 
region of swamps. Upon his next visit to Belleville he 
purchased of John H. Dennis, for the sum of $900, the block 
in that village bounded on the north and south by First 
and Second North Streets, on the east by Spring Street, 
and on the west by Richland Street. It was in the outskirts 
of the town, though separated at one corner by a street only 
from the block from which one-fourth of the public, or 
Court house, square was taken. The site of Belleville, when 
a small farm belonging to George Blair, was selected, on 
March 10th, 1814, by seven special connnissioners appointed 
by the Legislature, as the location for the future county 
seat of St. Clair County. Blair subsequently sold the 
town— excepting lots previously disposed of— to an enter- 



133 

prising Canadian-Frenchman named Etienne Pensoneau ; 
and, in 1824, Pensoneau sold it to Gov. Edwards, who re- 
moved his resitlence from Edwardsville to Belleville in the 
winter of 1824- '25. The block of lots purchased by Mr. 
Snyder Avere donated by Gov. Edwards to Mr. Dennis, a 
Virginian and distant relative by marriage. A condition 
of the sale to Mr. Snyder was 'that possession of the prem- 
ises Avould be retained by IMr. Dennis until the 1st of j\Iarch 
following. 

The eighth General Assembly met at Vandalia on the 
3d of December, 1832. Zadok Casey, having been elected 
t() Congress, resigned the position of Lieutenant Governor, 
and Senator William Lee D. Ewing, who, as Colonel of 
one of Gen'l Henry's trusted regiments, won distinction in 
the Black Hawk war, was chosen by the Senate its presiding 
officer in his stead. Jesse B. Thomas, Jr., was again elected 
Secretary. In the organization of the House, Alexander M. 
Jenkins was selected for Speaker, and David Prickett for 
Clerk. The proscription of members who voted for the 
Wiggins loan in the seventh Assembly was very apparent 
in the eighth. Of the twenty-six senators in the eighth 
Assembly, only eight had served in the seventh, namely, 
Archer, Conway, Evans, Grammar,* lies. Lynch, Snyder 
■and W^ill. With very few exceptions the members of the 
House were new men in public life, among whom were 
Murray IMcConnell, James Semple, Cyrus Edwards, Stin- 

* John Grammar was a very early settler of Southern Illinois, and 
was a member of the Territorial Council from Johnson County in 
181G and 1817. He was ultra pro-slavery in sentiment and vehemently 
supported the convention scheme in 1824. Later, when a member of 
the Legislature from Union county, Judge Joe Gillespie says, a ques- 
tion arose regarding the validity of the titles to slaves in Illinois. 
"The old gentleman instantly arose and remarked, 'that fittener men 
than he was mout hev been found to defend the masters agin the 
sneakin' ways of the infernal abolitioners; but, havin' rights on my 
side. I don't fear. sir. I will show that are proposition is unconsti- 
tutionable. inlegal and fornenst the compact. Don't every one know, 
or leastwise had ought to know, that the Congress that sot at Post 
Vinsan, garnisheed to the old French inhabitants the right to their nig- 
gers; and hain't I got as much rights as any Frenchman in this 
State? Answer me that, sir." 



134 

sen H. Anderson, John T. Stuart and Peter Cartwright.* 
Mr. Snyder was placed on the Judiciary Committee and 
on the Committee on Petitions. 

In his message to the Legislature Gov. Reynolds reviewed 
the late military operations resulting in expulsion of the 
hostile Indians from the State, urged legislation for a sys- 
tem of common schools, improvement of the Chicago har- 
bor, construction of either a railroad or canal connecting 
the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, with preference for 
the former, closing with forcible endorsement of President 
Jackson's proclamation denouncing the South Carolina 
Nullification resolutions, and appealed to the Legislature 
to express the people's approval of the President's views. 
His appeal was complied with in a set of resolutions 
'' pledging Illinois to sustain the President in his deter- 
mination to execute the laws of the United States at all 
hazards," that were adopted with practical unanimity, as 
a large majority of both houses were 'Svhole hog" adherents 
of Old Hickorv. 

That portion of the message relating to the late Indian 
war was, on motion of Mr. Snvder, laid on the table and 
500 copies of it ordered printed for use of the Senate. 

When the tAvo houses met in joint session, on Dec. 29th, 
for election of State officers, Major John Dement was re- 
elected Treasurer without opposition. Col. James T. B. 
Stapp was chosen Auditor over Edmund G. Taylor and 
William B. Archer. 

James Semple was elected Attorney General, defeating 

A. F. Grant, A. W. Cavarly, Canterberry, John J. 

Hardin and Sidney Breese, the latter receiving one vote. 
Samuel C. Pearce was made Warden of the Penitentiary. 

Early in the session of the eighth General Assembly a 
bill was passed by the House entitled, ''An act to appoint 

* At the Augxist election, 1832, in Sangamon County, entitled to four 
representatives in the lower house of the Legislature, eleven candi- 
dates were announced. The four elected were G. D. Taylor, who re- 
ceived 1127 votes; Achilles Morris. 945; John T. Stuart, 991, and Peter 
Cartwright. 815. Of the seven defeated, Abraham Lincoln, fresh from 
the Black Hawk war, was eighth on the list with G57 votes. 



i i 



135 

Commissioners to permanently locate the seat of govern- 
ment of Illinois," and Avas sent to the Senate. There the 
bill was read a second time, on Jan. 9, 1833, and, on mo- 
tion of Senator EAving, referred to a select committee of 
five, announced by the presiding officer to consist of Ewing, 
Mills, ]\[ather, lies and Craig. On Jan. 12, Mr. Ewing, the 
chairman of that committee, reported "That they consider 
any legislation on the subject indicated by the bill, at this 
time, as premature, and recommend to the Senate its rejec- 
tion," and, on motion of Mr. Ewing, the bill and report 
were laid on the table. 

On Jan. 14th the bill and report, on motion of ]\Ir. Ewing, 
were taken up, when Senator Conway moved to amend said 
report by striking out all of the same after the word 
that," and inserting in lieu thereof the folloA\dng, towit: 
After the period fixed by the constitution fixing the seat 
of government at Vandalia shall have expired, it shall then 
be permanently located and fixed at Alton, on the ]\Iissis- 
sippi River," which was decided in the negative by yeas 
5, nays 21. The report was then adopted, by 14 to 13, 
and again laid on the table. The bill and report were 
again called up, by Mr. Ewing, on the 15th, when Mr. AVil- 
liamson moved that its further consideration be indefinitely 
postponed, which motion was rejected by the vote of 15 to 
11. Mr. Snyder then moved to amend the bill by striking 
out all after the enacting clause, and inserting in lieu 
thereof the follo\Adng: "That at the next election to be 
held in the several counties in this State for membei^ of 
the Legislature, there shall be opened at each place of vot- 
ing a book in which shall be entered the votes of qualified 
voters in favor of the following named places, as their 
choice for the permanent location of the seat of government 
of this State, at the expiration of the time prescribed by the 
Constitution for it to remain at Vandalia, to-wit : The geo- 
graphical center of the State, Jacksonville in Morgan Coun- 
ty; Springfield, in Sangamon County; Alton, in Madison 
County, and Vandalia, in Fayette County. The point or 



136 

place receiving the highest number of votes shall forever 
remain the seat of government for the State of Illinois. ' ' 

Other Senators proposed to further amend by inserting 
''Havana, in Tazewell County," ' ' Beardstown, in Morgan 
County," ''Rushville, in Schuyler County," " Shelby ville, " 
and ''Decatur," all of which were rejected, when Mr. Sny- 
der's amendment was adopted by 16 ayes to 10 nays. At 
the instance of Senator Strode the amendment of Mr. Sny- 
der w^as modified by adding the words "Peoria, in Peoria 
Countv. ' ' 

Mr. Snyder 's amendment, subsequently modified by vest- 
ing the power of election in the Legislature instead of the 
people at large, became the law by w^hich the capitol was 
removed, six years later, from Vandalia to Springfield. 

Public enthusiasm for internal improvement in Illinois 
w^as manifested that early by the passing of many special 
acts by the Legislature incorporating various enterprises 
demanded by the people. Companies were authorized to 
build towns, railroads, colleges, seminaries, libraries and 
canals. Of railroads then contemplated, charters were 
granted for one from Chicago to the Illinois River; one 
from Peru on the Illinois River to Cairo to be known as 
the Illinois Central Railroad, and another crossing the State 
on the latitude of Springfield. As the impecunious book 
worm derives pleasure in checking off on a catalog such 
books as he would like to have, but is unable to purchase, 
those charters, costing nothing, afforded the people much 
gratification, but none of the proposed enterprises pro- 
gressed farther than the legislative authority granted. 

There appearing to Mr. Snyder no valid reason why ac- 
tion of the Senate in secret session on the Governor's nom- 
inations should be excluded from the public, upon his 
motion, it was "Ordered, that the proceedings had in secret 
session on the Governor's nominations for office be spread 
on the records." 

A bill was passed fixing the rate of interest at six per 
cent, in absence of specified rate in contracts. At that ses- 



137 

sion but two new counties were organized, Champaign and 
Iroquois. 

The chief business of the session, not in importance, but 
in widespread interest, Avas the trial for impeaching The- 
ophilus AVasliington Smith, one of the lifetime justices of 
the Supreme Court, for malfeasance in office. Judge Smith 
Avas a prominent Jackson Democrat, a wily politician, a 
pleasant, affable gentleman, and good lawyer. He, at one 
time edited the Crisis, a paper published at Kaskaskia when 
Sidney Breese edited the Democrat there; he represented 
Madison County in the State Senate in the third and 

fourth General A.ssemblies, Avas cashier of the EdAvardsvillc 
bank, and serA^d on Gov. Reynolds' staff in the Black IlaAA^k 
AA'ar as Adjutant General. He AA^as born in Ncaa^ York on 
the 28th of September, 1784; AA^as educated there, studied 
law, an'd was admitted to the bar in 1805 ; then came to 
Illinois in 1816. 

SeA"eral petitions Avere presented to the Legislature charg- 
ing him AAdth acts of oppression, and misdemeanors in of- 
fice. Many Avitnesses AA^ere examined by the House, upon 
Avliose testimony it voted articles of impeachment embrac- 
ing five specifications, toAvit : imprisoning a Quaker for 
refusing to remoA^e his hat from his head in court; selling 
a circuit clerkship ; suspending a laAA\yer for adA^sing his 
client to ask for a change of venue from his Court, and 
two instances of SAA^earing out A^exatious AA^rits returnable 
before himself for the purpose of oppressing innocent men 
by holding them to bail. 

The Senate sat as a high court of Impeachment, the trial 
continuing from Jan. 9th to Feb. 7th, 1833. The prose- 
cuting managers on the part of the House Avere Benjamin 
Mills, James Semple, John T. Stuart, Murray McConnell 
and John Doughterty. Judge Smith Avas defended by 
Thomas Ford, Sidney Breese, and Richard M. Young, an 
array of legal talent, on both sides, unsurpassed for learn- 
ing and ability in the State. The speech of Mr. IMills in 
summing up the evidence for the prosecution Avas extended 



138 

over parts of three days, and was pronounced by all an ef- 
fort of matchless force and brilliancy. As a two-third vote 
was required for conviction Jndge Smith escaped dismissal. 
Twelve Senators voted for conviction, ten for acquittal and 
four were excused from voting, one of whom was Senator 
Snyder. The Senate Journal states: "Mr. Snyder was 
confined to his lodgings by indisposition three days during 
examination of witnesses; and not having heard the testi- 
mony on both sides on any one of the articles of impeach- 
ment, was excused as heretofore stated." Senators CraAV- 
forcl and Forquer were excused by reason of sickness, and 
Senator Evans was absent by leave of the Senate. 

Immediately on .Judge Smith's acquittal, the House 
passed, by a two-thirds vote, a resolution to remove him 
from office by address; but it failed to pass the Senate and 
he remained on the supreme bench until the 26th of Decem- 
ber, 1842, when he resigned. He died at his home in Chi- 
cago on the 6th of May, 1846. 

The Legislature adjourned on the 2d day of March, 1833. 

Returning home from Vandalia, Mr. Snyder at once 
removed his family and household property from the Amer- 
ican Bottom to the residence purchased by him of Mr. 
Dennis, in Belleville. That town, then numbering among 
its citizens ex-Gov. Edwards, Gov. Reynolds, Senator Sny- 
der, State's Attorney Alfred Cowles, and several other 
politicians of more or less note, Avith ex-Lieut. Gov. Kinney 
but a few miles away, was recognized by all office-seekers 
,as a "oolitical focus of the State of little, if any, less im- 
portance and influence than Vandalia. Dr. Joseph Green, 
who esablished the first newspaper in St. Clair County, 
The Western News, resided there, and Robert K. Fleming 
was then (1833) publishing there the St. Clair Gazette, sl 



I i 



whole hog" Jackson organ. 



On the western half of Mr. Snyder's premises— where 
now stands the Opera house — was a fine orchard of thrifty 
apple trees, and on the southeastern corner lots, nearest the 
public square, was the dwelling, an old frame house with 



139 

one room above another, an addition or two, one story high, 
and a log kitchen and smokehouse, all old and dilapidated. 
The house yard was shaded by large oaks and other forest 
trees conterminous with the heavily wooded region in the 
rear, on the northern and western sides, extending to and 
beyond Richland Creek. Mrs. Harriet Pensoneau, Mrs. 
Snyder's sister, purchased from Conrad Bornman, the first 
German who permanently located in Belleville, the corner 
lots diagonally across the street from the Dennis house, 
upon which Mr. Bornman had built a small frame house 
(still standing there in fair condition, 1903). Immediate- 
ly south of Mrs. Pensoneau 's premises, including the corner 
lots on Spring and Main Streets, w^as the home of Gov. 
Reynolds. Thus the Governor and Mr. Snyder were again 
fellow citizens of the same town and near neighbors, with 
their families on the most intimate terms of friendship. 

In 1832 and '33 the vanguard of the host of German 
immigrants, that afterwards poured into Southern Illinois 
for many years, made its appearance in St. Clair County. 
In 1833 and '34 the Hilgards, Engelmanns, Bunsens, and 
several other Germans of Avealth and education, came and 
settled about Belleville and in the Shiloah Valley, six miles 
to the northeast of Belleville. With them came Gustaviis 
Koerner, a bright, highly educated young man, and grad- 
uate in law of the Heidelberg University. His impulsive 
republican tendencies had involved him in a revolutionary 
uprising of the democratic element in Frankfurt, Avhere he 
was born and reared, and in the conflict with royal troops 
that followed on the 3d day of April, 1833, he was wounded. 
By aid of friends he escaped to France ; but there found 
no asylum for those who revolted against monarchical tyr- 
rany, and w^as escorted by French gens d' armes into Swit- 
zerland. Managing to elude the authorities, he passed 
through France, and came to America. Already well versed 
in Latin, and the French language, he soon mastered Eng- 
lish of which he had gained theoretical knowledge in col- 
lege. The large inflow of permanent German settlers in 



140 

that part of Illinois induced him to carry ont his original 
intention of adopting the legal profession as a life occu- 
pation. In that conclusion he was warmly encouraged by 
Mr. Snyder, who, from their first introduction, formed for 
him a cordial friendship, and did all in his power to aid 
him to establish himself in business. 

In the spring of 1834 Mr. Snyder employed Conrad Born- 
man, the brick mason, and other mechanics, to build for 
him a Jaw office, in the northwest corner of the public 
squ'are, near the Court house, on a lot he had purchased 
for that purpose. It was a very modest brick building of 
two rooms, one behind the other, plainly but substantially 
erected and finished. In that office Mr. Koerner was in- 
stalled until he went to Lexington, Kentucky, and attended 
a law course at Transylvania University, a year later. 

Mr. Snyder's knowledge of the German language at- 
tracted to his office many of the newly arrived foreigners 
who came to consult him in regard to lands and land 
titles ; and for several years he did an extensive real estate 
business with and for them. A large proportion of German 
immigrants to Southern Illinois Avere of the laboring, or 
agricultural classes, sturdy, industrious, economical people 
who — like thistle seeds blown by the wind — took root in the 
soil where they alighted, and grew and flourished. ]\Iany 
an improvident American pioneer with more fondness for 
his gun and dog than for his plow, spending his time 
hunting for bee trees, or in horse racing, or at the town 
grocery, was displaced by the thrifty foreigner who paid 
him for his "improvements," then entered the land, and, 
in the course of a few vears became a wealthv farmer. 
^Among the newly arrived Germans were many political 
exiles, as Mr. Koerner, from the upper social stratum, cul- 
tured, educated and refined, Avho contributed largely to 
the advancement of Illinois in all the avenues of literature 
and scholarship. 

The cholera that had accompanied Gen'l Scott's troops 
from New York City to Prairie du Chien, in 1832, continued 



141 

its rapid and deadly march down through the settlements 
bordering the Mississippi until arrested at St. Louis for 
the Avinter by cold weather. AVith the rise of temperature 
in the spring, it awoke from its hibernation and recom- 
menced its terrible progress. It made its first appearance 
in Belleville, in May, 1833, advancing from St. Louis, and 
was epidemic there by June, attended with alanning fa- 
tality. 

Among the many superior attainments of Gov. Edwards 
was a very considerable practical knowledge of medicine. 
How he ever found time in his busy life to give that study 
.any attention is incomprehensible. His practice of the 
healing art was gratuitous and usually confined to the 
poorer classes, as an adjunct to his natural broad philan- 
thropy and charity. Yet, such was the popular confidence 
in his medical skill and judgment that "it was not unusual 
for persons to come hundreds of miles to consult him with 
regard to cases that were considered of a dangerous charac- 
ter by other physicians. ' '* 

When it was learned that the cholera was moving west- 
ward from India, Gov. Edwards exhausted all accessible 
means of obtaining reliable information of its causes, na- 
ture and symptoms, and the most successful methods then 
known for combatting it. At length when it invaded his 
home village he was indefatigable in his efforts to stay its 
progress and shield the people from its pitiless havoc. 
Though his health at the time was impaired, and he was 
importuned by his family and friends to leave the infected 
district; or, at least, observe every possible precaution for 
his own safety, he was fearless and unremitting in minis- 
tering to its victims, particularly those in the humbler 
walks of life. lie responded to the calls of charity at all 
hours of day and night, with immunity from the dreadful 
disease, until about the middle of July, when he was him- 
self attacked by its premonitory symptoms, and confined 

* I^ife and Times of Ninian Edwards. By Ninian W. Edwards, 1S70, 
p. 24Z 



142 

to Ms bed for a day or two. With careful treatment he 
recovered sufficiently to be enabled to leave his room, and 
for two days resume his usual routine business. On Fri- 
day evening, July 19th, he relapsed and was at once pros- 
trated with the most violent symptoms of cholera, and 
sank rapidly. A messenger Avas despatched for his brother, 
Dr. Benjamin Edv/ards, who resided at Edwardsville ; but 
before his arrival, at 7 o'clock on the morning of July 
20th, 1833, Gov. Edwards expired, in the 58th year of his 
age. 

From any point of view Gov. Edwards was, beyond all 
question, the ablest man in Illinois. Jesse B. Thomas, John 
McLean, Daniel P. Cook, and a few others, in some respects, 
were his equal; but in breadth and strength of intellect, 
in scholarly attainments, business sagacity and versatility 
of genius, he surpassed them all. As a lawyer, statesman, 
politician, financier, merchant, the measure of his success in 
the years of his busy life Avas proof of diversified talents 
far above the average. His opponents said he was vain 
and arrogant. If so, his justifiable vanity was balanced 
by his friendly, amiable disposition, and his seeming arro- 
gance by open handed benevolence and kindness of heart. 
' ' A more affectionate and devoted husband, father, brother ; 
or a kinder neighbor, never lived." The virtues of honor, 
justice, truth and charity were his. He w^as compassionate 
to the poor and needy, and in ministering to that class fin- 
ally sacrificed his life. To flee from such an enemy as 
Asiatic cholera is not cowardice, but courageous wisdom. 
Gov. Edwards could easily have secured personal safety 
from it in flight; but fell a martyr to his lofty sentiments 
of philanthropy and sense of duty. He was subject to 
occasional fits of uncontrolable passion, in one of which 
he once fell to the floor, unconscious, when addressing the 
U. S. Senate, and was carried out of the chamber. Such 
exhibitions of anger, however, were rare. The great mis- 
take of his distinguished career was his resignation from 
the Senate to accept the mission to Mexico. No reason can 



143 

be assigned for expatriating himself at that time by ex- 
changing a seat in the U. S. Senate, which he might have 
held indefinitely, for a third or fourth rate diplomatic of- 
fice. From the date of that illy-advised step his political 
strength in Illinois began to wane, and his subsequent ef- 
forts to regain the exalted position he relinquished were 
unsuccessful. 

When Mrs. Daniel P. Cook died, at her father's resi- 
dence in Belleville, in 1830, the town having no cemetery, 
she was buried, terdporarily, on Mr. Dennis' place, on 
Spring street, in the edge of the woods thirty or forty 
yards north of the Dennis dwelling. The Governor, hav- 
ing died, he w-as buried by her side, on the premises then 
owned and occupied by Mr. Snyder.* Before his last and 
fatal sickness he Avas contemplating removing from Belle- 
ville to Springfield, where, with his usual far-seeing judg- 
ment, he had made large investments in real estate that 
soon began rapidly to appreciate in value. After I\Irs. 
Cook's death he donated to the town for the use of the pub- 
lic, the space of ground then far out in the woods, upon 
which the Catholic Bishop 's residence and Parochial school 
building now stand, for burial purposes, and it was for 
many years the only cemetery in the place. It was his 
intention, when he changed his residence to Springfield, to 
exhume the remains of his daughter, Mrs. Cook, and re- 
inter them there. In 1855, when sale of the Snyder prop- 
erty rendered their removal imperative, the moldering bones 
of the statesman and his daughter were taken up from 
their long resting place and transferred to Oak Ridge cem- 
etery at Springfield, t 

* The writer well remembers the awe and undefined dread that im- 
pelled him. when a small boy, to shun near approach to those two 
lonely, unmarked graves, in the corner of the garden, covered, pall- 
like, with a thick matting- of dark green creeping myrtle. 

t When exhuming the remains of Gov. Edwards and Mrs. Cook 
the laborers had removed but little earth from the foot of the Gov- 
ernor's grave when their spades came in contact with a heavy wooden 
box. that, when opened, was found to contain a closely packed human 
skeleton. The ghastly discovery, suggestive of a hidden crime, pro- 
duced a livelv sensation, and the coroner was summoned to investi- 
gate the mystery. The inquest had not proceeded far, however, when 



144 

The total revenue of the State from all sources for the 
third and fourth fiscal years of Governor Reynold's admin- 
istration amounted to $147,074, and the disbursements for 
the same period to $146,777. The expenses of the last ses- 
sion of the Legislature, together with the year's salaries 
of the Governor and State oiScers aggregated $50,748, 
The State's indebtedness was the Wiggins loan, $100,000, 
and very nearly as much more that had been diverted from 
the school and seminary funds to defray current State 
expenses. AA^ith recurrence of autumn frosts the cholera 
disappeared. Its visitation, appalling while it lasted, had 
but temporary depressing effect upon business and com- 
merce, and did not appreciably retard the general prosper- 
ity of the country or check the growth of the State's popu- 
lation and wealth. In that large scope of splendid country 
between Rock Island and Chicago, where the settler had be- 
fore been excluded by dread of Indian troubles, the pio- 
neer's plow was already obliterating the ancient trails of 
the buffalo and the savage. 

In the annals of Illinois— and the west — the year 1833 
is memorable, not on account of the cholera's ravages alone, 
but for that startling phenomena that occurred in the 
early morning of November 13th, known among the pio- 
neers as the ''falling stars." Meteors commenced falling 
into the atmosphere and igniting between one and two 
o'clock, presenting the appearance of myriads of stars fall- 
ing in all directions, like snowflakes in a storm, lighting the 
night with a strange, wierd brilliancy. The amazing display 
continued until extinguished by the superior light of the 
risen sun. It was a scene of marvelous sublimitv well cal- 
culated to indelibly impress the memory and stir th6 imag- 
ination with superstitious wonder. 

There was no meeting of the Legislature in the winter of 
1833-34; but, as the following summer would bring around 

one of the local physicians quieted the excitement by explaining the. 
bones to be those of a "subject" young Snyder (the writer) when 
a, medical student, had brought from the dissecting room and buried 
there before his departure for California in 1850. 



145 

another general election in the State, there was no hiber- 
nation of politicians. No inclemency of weather dampened 
their ardor or cooled their ambition, and through the long 
winter months they prosecuted their siege of the long-suf- 
fering people. It was customary to give the first day of 
Circuit Court terms, after the judge had charged the grand 
jury, to the public for political speeches and discussions. 
At such times the representatives in Congress and the Leg- 
islature usually rendered to their constituents accounts of 
their stewardships, and aspirants for all offices at the next 
election came forward and greeted the voters if not always 
with flowery eloquence, invariably with fair promises. 

General Joseph Duncan, then serving his fourth term in 
Congress, was early announced a candidate for Governor. 
He remained in Washington City during the campaign and 
addressed the people of the State through the medium of 
newspapers and circulars. He was opposed in the field by 
three candidates, William Kinney, John Adams and Robert 
McLaughlin. The last named was his uncle, who had 
served four years as State Treasurer and six years in the 
Ijegislature. On the question of slavery General Duncan 
was very conservative. He detested Abolitionists and Abo- 
litionism; was opposed to interfering with slavery where 
it existed, and equally opposed to its extension into terri- 
tory where it did not exist — especially into Illinois. He 
had four times been elected to Congress as an ultra Jackson 
Democrat, and Jackson Democrats again rallied with their 
usual party zeal to his support for Governor. 

The candidates for Lieutenant Governor were Alexander 
M. Jenkins, James Evans and William B. Archer. 

The First, or Belleville, Congressional district was rep- 
resented by Charles Slade, of whom now but little is known. 
He was a candidate for re-election, as he had informed his 
constituents. Governor Reynolds, whose term as Governor 
would expire on the first Monday in December, 1834, 
yielded to the earnest solicitations of his friends" and 
consented, for the good of the country," that they might 
-10 



( i 
i i 



146 

"use his name" also in connection mtli the election of 
Congressman. On his way home after adjournment of 
Congress, in the summer of 1834, Mr. Slacle Avas stricken 
with cholera and died. That melancholy and unexpected 
event caused a vacancy for his unexpired term to be sup- 
plied at the general election. Gov. Reynolds, again ' ' yield- 
ing to the wishes of his friends," announced himself a can- 
didate for that also, and had no opposition. Had Mr. 
Slade lived, Governor Reynolds would probably have been 
his only competitor, for he (Slade) w^as deservedly very 
popular, and his course in Congress Avas generally ap- 
proved by the voters of the district. His luitimely death 
left that faction of the Democratic party who supported 
him against Governor Edwards two years before, and who 
thought the Old Ranger's military achievements had been 
sufficiently rewarded, without an aspirant for the position 
to replace him. The convention system was then unknown 
in the west, but King Caucus was beginning to assert his 
power. A consultation of a few of the most prominent 
anti-Reynolds men was held, resulting, after due delibera- 
tion, in naming Adam AV. Snyder, a party leader in the 
Senate with creditable Black Hawk war record, as the most 
available man to oppose Reynolds, and accordingly he was 
announced a candidate for the full term. 

The political antagonism of Reynolds and Synder, dat- 
ing from the latter 's early association with Judge Jesse B. 
Thomas, may possibly have influenced, to some extent, the 
action of the caucus. The AVhigs were yet numerically too 
weak in the district to present a candidate with any hope 
of success even against the divided Jackson party. An un- 
trammeled test of strength of Reynolds and Snyder at the 
polls would, doubtless, have been very interesting, though 
all advantages of longer residence in the country, earlier 
military service and more extensive general acquaintance 
with the people, was decidedly in the Old Ranger's favor. 
But a third candidate, also a Jackson Democrat, entered the 
lists with them for Congressional honors. Colonel Edward 



147 

ITiiinphreys, of Kaskaskia, for some years Receiver of the 
land office there. He had formerly been a Crawford man, 
but had transferred his allegiance to Old Hickory, in pref- 
erence to lapsing into political extinction. 

Of his two competitors in that race Governor Reynolds 
said, twenty-one years later, in 1855:* "This district 
contained a large democratic majority, and no whig offered 
for Congress at that election. There were in the field three 
candidates for Congress, A. W. Synder, Esq., Colonel Ed- 
ward Pluinphreys and myself, all Democrats and Jackson 
men. All the candidates offered without a convention. 

"]\Ir. Snyder, the candidate for Congress, was a con- 
spicuous and distinguished character, a popular member of 
the General Assembly, and possessed great strength and. 
versatility of talent. He had been in his youth deprived 
of a classic education, and was a self-taught man. But the 
natural powers of his mind were strong and energetic, and 
he studied the human character in all its various phases. 
He possessed in an eminent degree the talent to advance 
himself in the good graces of the people. His speeches 
were generally short, eloquent and prepossessing. His ad- 
dress was agreeable, polite and courteous. His voice was 
excellent, and his addresses were generally received by his 
audience Avith marked approbation, and frequently pro- 
duced powerful effects. 

"He was then youthful, ardent and ambitious. Labor 
with him in electioneering was a pleasure, and his sociabil- 
ity and incessant "intercourse with the masses seemed to 
bv^ his pleasure and happiness. I\Ir. Snyder was then, in 
1834, a practicing lawyer, and was extremely popular at 
the bar. He always possessed the happy faculty of making 
the jurors believe he had the right side of the case. Scarce- 
ly any person had superior talent for making a bad case 
in court look well. AVith these rare qualities and abilities 
he rose to eminence in the State, and was nominated by a 
democratic convention to be a candidate for Governor. Ho 

* Reynolds' Life and Times, pp. 444-445. 



148 

v/ould have been in all human probability, elected Gov- 
ernor in 184:2, but before the election he died, much re- 
gretted by the people. 

"Colonel Humphrey, my other opponent, was a gentle- 
man of good sound talents, and had been for many years 
an officer in the laud office at Kaskaskia. He had been 
a warm supporter of Crawford, and was, in the Congres- 
sional election, an ultima Jackson man. He was a more vio- 
lent and proscriptive man than either j\lr. Snyder or my- 
self. He canvassed the district considerably, but made no 
stump speeches, and Avas not known in many of the coun- 
ties, but he received a goodly number 'of votes. Neverthe- 
less the contest for a seat in Congress was between Mr. 
Snyder and myself. " 

Electioneering for a seat in Congress at that date Avas 
not altogether a pleasureable pastime, but involved much 
labor and considerable expense. The district included 
nearly a fourth of the State, and candidates traveled over 
it, usually on horseback, addressing the people at every 
county seat and important town, subsidizing every news- 
paper of their respective parties, and treating all their 
friends at every dramshop, Avhether they themselves drank 
01 not. 

It was related during that campaign that Mr. Snyder, 
having made an appointment to address the citizens of 
Macoupin county, at Carlinville, on a certain day, was 
jcurneying there the evening before when night overtook 
him some miles yet from his destination. Remembering 
that a substantial and influential farmer and sound Demo- 
crat named "Watson resided in the neighborhood where he 
then was, he concluded to call on liim and stay over night, 
and, incidentally, ascertain how Mr. Watson's predilections 
were in regard to the Congressional candidates. Arriving 
there in the dusky twilight, he dismoujited at the gate, 
and, going to the front door of the dwelling, knocked re- 
peatedly, but received no response. He then walked 
around to the rear of the house in search of its occupants. 



149 

and heard at the barn lot a. man's voice, ^Ir. AVatson's pre- 
sumably, calling' up the hogs for their evening feed. Hear- 
ing other voices in the cow lot near by, he approached the 
fence and saw the farmer's wife milkin*^ a cow, and was 
dnmfounded on seeing, a few steps beyond. Governor Rey- 
nolds holding the calf away. AVithout uttering a word to 
make his presence known he hurried back to the gate, 
UiOunted his horse and rode on to Carlinville. 

Another incident of that campaign was related by Gen- 
eral John AI. Palmer, in a private letter written a short 
time before his death, as follows: '^At the spring term of 
the ]\Iadison county Circuit Court in 1834, I was present 
when Hon. Adam W. Snyder, candidate for Congress, had, 
as he supposed, a meeting of his own. He was addressing 
the people, when, to his surprise and consternation, Gov- 
ernor Reynolds walked in, and, in his usual affable way, 
said, ' How are you all, fellow citizens ? ' Then recognizing 
some persons in the audience, shook hands with them, and 
enquired about the health of their families. Mr. Snyder 
paused, and, raising his hands, exclaimed, 'My God! will I 
ever get rid if him this side of Heaven "? ' And then added 
sententiously, 'When there, I am quite sure I will be rid 
of him forever.' " 

In his intercourse Avith the people Mr. Snyder Avas al- 
ways cordial and pleasant, and conducted himself with the 
dignity and bearing of a gentleman. He was firm in his 
convictions and expressed them frankly in his political 
speeches, as in conversation, but was invariably respectful 
to his adversaries, never descending to ribaldry or personal 
abuse. 

Governor Reynolds, when a candidate for Congress, 
I)racticed the same "milk and cider" tactics he did in his 
contest for Governor, by pandering to the AVhigs while 
nominally a Jackson Democrat, and again he was success- 
ful. He was elected on the 4th of August, 1834, both for 
the vacancy and the full term of the 24th Congress. In 
St. Clair county, where he had resided for nearly thirty- 



150 

four years, and Mr. Snyder for seventeen, the votes cast at 
that election numbered 150 for Reynolds, 392 for Humph- 
reys and 653 for Snyder, a majority for Snyder over Rey- 
nolds of 503 and of 110 over the combined votes of both his 
opponents. 

For Governor, Joseph Duncan received 17,349 votes; 
William Kinney, 10,229 ; Mr. McLaughlin, 4,315, and Mr. 
Adams 887. Alexander ]\I. Jenkins was elected Lieutenant 
Governor by a large majority. 

The rejoicings of jubilant Democrats over their sweeping 
victory in Illinois were, however, turned to waitings of dis- 
appointment and indignation when they learned that their 
Governor-elect, Joseph Duncan — the man to whom they 
had given their confidence and loyal support for years — 
had betrayed them and gone over to the enemy. They 
were amazed and shocked, and could scarcely believe it 
true that he had joined the Whigs. It was well for him 
that he remained in Washington and concealed that fact 
until after the election, for had his defection been known 
in Illinois before that time he would have been overwhelm- 
ingly defeated. He left the Democratic party when the 
policy of the Jackson administration was defined by the 
veto of the National Bank bill and that of the Maysville 
road measure, but was careful to make no public declara- 
tion of his change of heart until the party he intended in 
future to antagonize had elevated him to the Governor- 
ship. 

"Well, Governor," remarked the new apostate Governor 
on meeting the Old Ranger after the election, "we are 
changing nags here; you are going from Governor to Con- 
gress, and I from Congress to Governor." "Yes," re- 
torted Reynolds, "and we have changed political nags too. 
You are now riding the Yankee mule and I am astraddle 
of Old Hickorv. " The Old Ranger thus facetiouslv admit- 
ting that heretofore he had been a "milk and cider," half 
Whig, but henceforth would affiliate with the "whole hog" 
party that Duncan had deserted. And so he did. 



151 



Lpon meeting Governor Duncan, and learning that he 
had gone over to the Whigs, Governor Kinney upbraided 
hnu as follows: "Now, Jo, we Jackson men took you up 
when you was young, poor and friendless; we put you in 
high office and enabled you to make a fortune; and for all 
tins you have joined the Adams men and become our en- 

Th,' 1 rVT ^'^^ * P""' ''°'*- ^^"^ "^""gl^t yo" "P out of 
a thicket, fed you on the best, combed the burrs out of 

your mane and tail, and made a tine horse of you, and now 
you ve^ broke away from us, and are trying to kick us to 
cieatii ±or our pains. ' 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Death of the wife of Gov. Reynolds in 1834 — Gen' 1 Ewing Governor 
for fifteen days — Another State Bank established — Loan of half 
a million of dollars on State credit for the canal — The Wiggins 
Ferry Company — Gen' 1 Ewing elected to the U. S. Senate for 
sixty-five days — Legislation of the second session of the ninth 
General Assembly. 

Colonel William Lee Davidson Ewing, elected by the 
Senators President of the Senate npon Lieutenant Governor 
Casey's resignation, was a rising politician of ability with 
much ambiton and self-esteem. He was a native of Ken- 
tucky and came to Shawneetown w^hen quite young, and 
there commenced the practice of law, but never attained 
high eminence in that profession. In 1820 he was ap- 
pointed by President Monroe Receiver of the land office at 
Vandalia. He then made that place his home and there 
married a daughter of Elijah C. Berry, the State's first 
Auditor. In 1823 he became financially embarrassed by the 
robbery of his office of a considerable amount of money. 
His political career began in 1826 by his election to the 
position of Clerk of the House of Representatives in the 
fifth General Assembly. He was re-elected Clerk of the 
House in the sixth Assembly, in 1828, and in 1830 was elect- 
ed a member of the House. He rendered distinguished 
service in the Black Hawk war under General Henry, and 
was promoted by the people of his district to the State 
Senate in 1832. He was a Jackson Democrat, of course; 
a fair speaker, brave and manly, and very obliging and 
courteous. He was a little above medium height, heavily 
built, with large head, short face, blue eyes and auburn 
hair. 

Reynolds disliked EAving— as he disliked every other suc- 
cessful, or promising, politician whom he could not control, 
and who might at some time possibly aspire to something 
he himself wanted— and knowing that Ewinsr would be- 



153 

come Governor upon his resignation of the office, held on 
to the place until he had barely time to reach Washington 
at the meeting- of Congress. 

In justice to Governor Reynolds, however, it must be 
borne in mind that another and far more serious cause 
contributed to detaining him at home to that late date. On 
the 5th of November his wife died at -Belleville, and was 
buried at Cahokia on the 7th. Sevwal days were required 
to effect the changes in his household, and new arrange- 
ments in his domestic affairs necessitated by that sad event, 
and it was not until the 17th of November, ten days after 
the burial of ]\Irs. Reynolds, that he resigned the executive 
office. General Ewing was then Governor of Illinois for 
fifteen davs without having- been elected to either that office 
or to that of Lieutenant Governor. 

The ninth General Assembly met at Vandal ia on the 
1st of December, 1834. James Semple, of jMadison county, 
was elected Speaker of the House, and David Prickett Clerk 
for the third time, with AValter B. Seates assistant Clerk, 
Leonard White was chosen Secretarv of the Senate. Of 
the new members of the House, subsequently mentioned in 
the annals of the State, w^ere Jesse K. Dubois, Milton Car- 
penter, Jesse B. Thomas, Jr., Abraham Lincoln and Or- 
lando B. Ficklin. Among those taking seats in the Senate 
for the first time were A. G. Herndon, William J. Gate- 
wood, William Thomas, James W. Stephenson and John S. 
Hacker. The message of Governor Ewing to the Legisla- 
ture was brief and modest, confined principally to an expo- 
sition of the State's financial condition. 

Governor Duncan's inaugural message left no doubt of 
his hostility to the policy of President Jackson's administra- 
tion on national questions. He took strong g:round in 
favor of establishing- a State Bank, and also advocated a 
system of internal improvements to be constructed and 
paid for by the State. He advised the lawmakers to "es- 
tablish some permanent system of common schools by 
which an education may be placed within the power, nay, 



154 

if possible, secured to every child in the State." He urged 
the necessity of completing the Illinois and Michigan canal 
''wide enough for steamboats to pass on it;" also the tax- 
ation of property for the support of the State, and favored 
the enactment by Congress of a national preemption law. 

In arranging the Senate committees, Mr. Snyder Avas 
made chairman of that on Finance, and a member of the 
committee on Military affairs. A large majority of both 
houses were opposed politically to Governor Duncan and 
his newly found allies, but he received from the legislators 
the utmost respect, and his recommendations all due consid- 
eration. Preliminary to the earnest business of the ses- 
sion, the two houses met to elect a Senator to succeed Hon, 
John M. Robinson, who w^as a candidate for re-election. 
Judge Richard M. Young and William B. Archer were also 
applicants for the place. Mr. Robinson was re-elected 
with 47 votes to 30 for Young and 4 for Archer. In that 
election Mr. Snyder voted for Judge Young, then residing 
in Alexander county in his Congressional district. 

Since the currency of the old State bank was redeemed 
and its affairs wound up, the people had become well ac- 
customed to getting along without local banks, having abun- 
dance of notes of banks in adjoining states in circulation, 
sufficient for their commercial purposes. But the mania 
for speculation that for some time had been raging in the 
east, infected certain classes in Illinois, who clamored 
for reestablishing banks in this state to further their 
schemes of legalized plunder. Party lines in the Legisla- 
ture were not drawn on the question of local banks. A few 
Whigs were opposed to them, and man}^ Democrats, believ- 
ing that General Jackson, though he vetoed the National 
Bank bill, was favorably disposed to State banks, thought 
it their duty to favor them also. Justice Theophilus- W. 
Smith, of the Supreme Court, a Democrat, drew up a bill 
chartering a new Illinois State bank with six branches and 
capital of $1,500,000, to be increased, if in future deemed 
necessary, by another $1,000,000, and reserving to the State 



155 

the privilege of taking $100,000 of the capital stock. The 
bill also provided for "extending for a limited time the 
charter of the old Shawneetown bank that failed twelve 
years before, Avith capital of $300,000. That bill was in- 
troduced in the Senate by Conrad. Will,* of Washington 
county, also a Democrat. 

Mr. Snyder, the leader of the opposition to banks in 
the Senate, exhausted every eil'ort in his power to defeat the 
bill ; but, deserted by weak-kneed Democrats, he failed, and 
the provisions for establishing the State bank were adopted. 
Upon third reading of the bill his speech against it was so 
effective that the clause resurrecting the defunct ShawTiee- 
town bank was stricken out by the vote of 13 to 12 ; but 
next day the vote was reconsidered and the bank bill in 
its entirety was passed and received the sanction of the 
Whig Governor and Council of Revision. It was charged 
that unblushing corruption Avas practiced in securing pas- 
sage of the bank bill. One anti-bank Democrat was bought 
over to its support, it was said, with the office of State's 
Attorney, and others by promises of support for certain 
acts ^f legislation they especially desired, and still others 
by means of more direct fraud. 

The people had not asked for reestablishing State banks; 
the business of the State did not require them. The move- 
ment was instigated by jobbers and speculators, and was 
the beginning of a series of ill-judged acts of legislation 
that proved in their ultimate consequences disastrous to 
the people and the State. - 

Senator Forquer, of the Internal Improvement Commit- 
tee, made an exhaustive and elaborate report on the condi- 

* Conrad W^ill, in whose honor the county of Will was named, was 
born in Philadelphia, Pa., June 4, 1778, and there graduated in medi- 
cine. He came to Kaskaskia in 1813 and practiced his profession 
there a short time, when he engaged in the manufacture of salt from 
a saline spring near the Big Muddy, and was quite successful. He 
was a member of the Constitutional convention, and represented 
Jackson County in the .first Legislature in 1818; and was re-elected to 
one house or the other of every subsequent assembly to and including 
the ninth. He died after the session adjourned in 1835, June 11th. 
Gov. Ford says of him: "He was not remarkable for anything except 
his good humor, and for having been long a member of the Legis- 
lature." 



156 

tion and prospective benefits of the Illinois and ]\Iichigan 
canal— 5,000 copies of Avhicli were ordered to be printed for 
information of the public— and proposed a bill, which was 
passed, authorizing the borrowing of $500,000, secured by 
lien on the canal lands, for prosecuting work upon it. Nin- 
ian W. Edwards, son of Gov. Edwards, was elected, in 
joint session, on the 14th of January, 1835, Attorney Gen- 
eral, and resigned the office on the 7th of the following 
month. Five days later the vacancy was supplied by 
election of Jesse B. Thomas, Jr., a Whig, for whom 55 
votes were cast. Three votes— one of them Mr. Snyder's— 
AVere cast for Seth T. Sawyer. 

At the same time State's Attornej^s were elected for 
the five judicial districts. For that office in the Jackson- 
ville district, Stephen A. Douglas, with 38 votes, defeated 
John J. Hardin who received 34. In the Third district 
Orlando B. Ficklin was chosen, having 46 votes to 44 
for John Dougherty; and in the Fifth district William 
A. Richardson secured the place by 57 votes to only 11 
for O. H. Browning. Col. Stapp was re-elected Auditor, 
and Col. John Dement, Treasurer. Stephen T. Logan, Sid- 
n(^y Breese, Henry Eddy, Thomas Ford and Justin Harlan 
were elected Circuit Judges. 

''Mr. Snyder from the committee to which was referred 
the petitions of sundry citizens of St. Clair County," re- 
ported a lengthy set of resolutions memorializing Congress 
to grant to St. Clair County a quarter section of land on 
the Mississippi River opposite the city of St. Louis, Mo., 
f ( r certain road purposes, which were adopted by both 
houses. That \vas the initial move in a bitter contest last- 
ing for years, on the part of the citizens of St. Clair Coun- 
ty, to combat the grinding monopoly of the Wiggins Ferry 
Company at St. Louis. The first regular ferry at that 
point was established by Capt. Piggott, in 1790, with boats 
propelled by oars. Samuel Wiggins purchased the ferry 
in 1818, and substituted boats driven by horse power in 
place of oars. He then secured from the first Illinois 



157 

Legislature, at Vandalia, in 1819, a charter granting him- 
self and associates, and their successors, the exclusive right 
of use, for ferry purposes, of the river front extending a 
mile along its bank, opposite St. Louis. The river bank 
there was part of the extensive tract held in connnon by 
the French inhabitants of Cahokia, unalienable by them 
without authority of Congress. From the illiterate Trus- 
tees of the old French town the Wiggins Company procured 
confirmation of the rights granted by the Legislature, for 
the consideration that all French residents of Cahokia and 
the commons should be ferried across the river at all times 
without charge. The constantly increasing stream of west- 
ern emigration crossing the Mississippi at St. Louis, and 
the rapidly growing traffic between that city and southern 
Illinois, greatly increased the business of the ferry and 
made the Wiggins Company a powerful and exacting mon- 
opoly. In' 1828 the horse boats Avere replaced by a large 
double-keel steam boat named the ''St. Clair," and in 1832 
another similar boat, the ' ' Ibex, ' ' was added,, and still 
others as enlarging demands required. 

The farmers of several counties in Southern Illinois, 
especially of St. Clair, Monroe and Madison, who sold the 
most of their farm products in St. Louis; and the mer- 
cliants, teamsters, and others, compelled to frequently cross 
the Mississippi by the Wiggins ferry, complained of the 
extortionate and intolerable charges of that monopoly, and 
agitated the movement for obtaining relief. So long as 
the Wiggins Company held their franchise no competing 
ferry could be established there; and Congress alone pos- 
sessed the power to terminate the exclusive right of the 
company to the mile of river shore on the Illinois side. I\Ir. 
Snyder's resolutions asking Congress to grant St. Clair 
County— with consent of the inhabitants of Cahokia, al- 
ready obtained— 160 acres of land bordering on the river 
opposite the City of St. Louis, were transmitted to Wash- 
ington, and Gov. Reynolds, representative of the First Illi- 
nois District, secured passage of a bill by Congress com- 



158 

plying with the request of the Legislature. That was the 
lirst skirmish in a protracted struggle by the people to 
abridge the power and abuse of power, of the Wiggins 
Ferry Company. 

Details of the long, acrimonious conflict with the Avealthy 
corporation would here be out of place. Despite the oppo- 
sition of a strong and unscrupulous lobby employed by 
the Wiggins Company, Col. John Thomas and Dr. W. W. 
Roman, representatives, of St. Clair County in the Legis- 
lature of 1839, succeeded in obtaining a franchise for their 
county to establish and operate a ferry at St. Louis along- 
side of the Wiggins ferry. In due time "The People 's- 
Ferry," equipped with first-class boats, was put in opera- 
tion there, much to the relief of the long-suffering travel- 
ing public. But the competition was very distasteful to 
the old monopoly, and the Wiggins Company spared no 
means to get rid of it. Col. J. L. D. Morrison, a lawyer 
of Belleville, shrewd and energetic, two or three years 
later obtained from the Illinois Legislature a charter, or 
revival of a charter, for constructing a railroad from 
Belleville to a point opposite St. Louis, with a clause in- 
serted empowering the railroad company to buy or lease 
the County ferry. 

That franchise was afterwards transferred to the St. 
Louis, Alton & Terre Haute Railroad Company of which 
Col. Morrison was the chief attorney. He then jjersuaded 
the County Court of St. Clair County to lease in perpet- 
uity the County ferry to that railroad corporation with, the 
understanding that it would be continued in operation, for 
the accommodation of the public, in competition with the 
AViggins ferry. So well satisfied Avere the county authori- 
ties with the pledges of Col. Morrison and the corporation 
he represented, that they made the perpetual lease, and 
reserved no provision for reversion, or forfeiture, in case 
of failure on the part of the lessees to comply with their 
obligations to the county. Not long after that arrange- 
ment was consummated, in consideration of certain ter- 



159 

minal facilities, the railroad company transferred the 
County ferry to the AViggins ferry Company. The old tran- 
sit monopoly was resumed, and continued undisturbed until 
opposed by one infinitely worse— as affecting railroad traf- 
fic—when the Eades bridge was completed. 

Elias Kent Kane, one of the most active and influential 
members of the convention that framed the first State 
Constitution, having assurances— so it is said— of his ap- 
pointment of Secretary of State by the first Governor, 
(Bond), and not certain how he might fare if selection of 
the Secretary was left to the Legislature, inserted the pro- 
vision in the Constitution for election of state officers by 
the Legislature, excepting the Secretary of State, who 
would receive his appointment from the Governor ''by 
and with the consent of the Senate," but neglected to de- 
fine the duration of his term of office. INIr. Kane received 
the appointment from Gov. Bond, and resigned after serv- 
ice of four years. In 1828, there occurring a vacancy by 
resignation of George Forquer, Gov. Edwards appointed 
Col. Alexander P. Field, Secretary of State, who construed 
the Constitution to give him a life tenure of the office. With 
Gen'l Duncan, Jesse B. Thomas, Jr., and others, he had 
renounced Jacksonism and joined the Whigs. As he was 
an influential and sagacious politician, the Democrats were 
very desirious of turning him out of office and putting in 
his stead one of their own party, or leave the office vacant 
until a Democrat was elected Governor. 

With that object in view. Senator Thomas of Morgan 
county, offered a resolution, "That in the opinion of this 
General Assembly, every Governor when elected, has the 
powder to nominate a suitable person to fill the office of 
Secretary of State, and that he may forbear to make such 
a nomination whilst there is a Secretary of State in office." 
A motion to indefinitely postpone further consideration of 
the resolution was lost, when, on motion of Mr. Snyder, it 
was "referred to the Judiciary Committee with instructions 
to report a bill defining the duties, and term of service of 



160 

the Secretary of State," which was agreed to; but the 
Judiciary Committee failed to report the required bill that 
session, and Mr. Field held fast to the office. The object 
of Mr. Snyder, and his partisans, was to declare the office 
vacant bv limitation, and then refuse to confirm the nom- 
ination of any Whig for the place made by Gov. Duncan. 

Mr. Snyder introduced a resolution, "instructing our 
Senators, and requesting our Representatives in Congress to 
secure, if possible," a grant of 400 acres of land to each 
person who was the head of a family in Illinois between 
the years 1783 and that of the cession of Louisiana to the 
United States, 1803, which was unanimously adopted. 

The Normal school appeared for the first time in the 
Legislature of Illinois, at that session, in a resolution of- 
fered by Senator Gatewood, "to memorialize Congress to 
grant to Illinois a reasonable quantity of land, or a por- 
tion of the proceeds of the sale thereof, for the support 
of seminaries to qualify teachers, etc.," wliich, on motion 
of Mr. Snyder, was laid on the table and 10,000 copies 
(with Mr. Gatewood 's Report on Education) ordered 
printed. 

Near the close of the session. Senator Will, as his last 
official act, in a spirit of levity, no doubt, offered the fol- 
lowing resolution : 

^'Besolvedy That the Committee on Finance be instructed 
to inquire into the expediency of taxing all bachelors over 
the age of 24 years; and that they ha\^e leave to report 
by bill or otherwise." On motion of Senator Thomas of 
Morgan county, the resolution was laid on the table "until 
next 4th of July." 

By special message Gov. Duncan sent to the Senate his 
nomination of Mr. Linn, his brother-in-law, for Canal Com- 
missioner, and the nomination was confirmed by 10 votes for 
and 9 against, Mr. Snyder voting in the negative. The 
journal of the Senate states the Legislature adjourned 
on the 13th of February, 1835, "after an impressive prayer 
by Rev. Mr. Hunter." 



161 

The first national convention for nominating candidates 
for President and Vice-President was held by the Demo- 
crats at Baltimore, in May, 1835, though the election was 
yet eighteen months distant in the future. Their nom- 
inees were INIartin Van Buren for President, and Richard 
M. Johnson for Vice-President. The Whigs held no Presi- 
dential convention that year, or the next. 

By the census taken in 1835 the population of Illinois 
was 269,974; an increase since 1830 of 112,529; and since 
1818 of 235,354. The counties had multiplied from 19 
in 1820, to 57 in 1835. 

The capital stock of the new State banks was soon sub- 
scribed, chiefly by foreign* capital, and they were in full 
operation by midsummer. Money — such as it was — was 
again abundant, and, in consequence, the values of proper- 
ty enhanced. The State treasury paid all demands against 
it— in ' ' s^hinplasters " ; taxes were only nominal, and the 
people, as well as the State, were in a flourishing condition. 
A furor for speculation, especially in town lots, stimu- 
lated by illusive prosperity, first appeared at Chicago, then 
swept all over the State. That town expanded, in a short 
period of time, from a small, dismal village of a few hun- 
dred people, to a city of several thousands of inhabitants. 
Every stage coach and lake boat arriving there from the 
east was crowded with capitalists in haste to invest in real 
estate to sell again to latQr arrivals at fabulous profits. 

In the organization of the State bank the Whigs, by 
far the heaviest stock-holders, beat the Judge Smith party 
and gained control of it. They attempted to have the bank 
m.ade the depository of land office funds; but tl;ie Demo- 
crats had sufficient influence at Washington to frustrate 
that scheme. They probably could not have, succeeded in 
any event, as the old State bank, years before, had de- 
faulted payment to the government in the sum of $40,000 
committed to its care by the land office at Edwardsville. 

* The term "foreign" here means outside of Illinois; or capital from 
the eastern states. ' 

-11 



162 

Alton at that time was a very thriving town, expected 
by many of its citizens to succeed as a commercial rival 
of St. Louis. The firm of Godfrey, Oilman & Co., mer- 
chants at Alton and large stockholders in the new bank, 
borrowed from it $800,000 to "corner" the. output of Ga- 
lena mines, and to "boom" Alton. Manning & Co., an- 
other firm there, also borrowed several hundred thousands 
from the bank; and Sloo & Co., still another Alton firm, 
obtained from the bank large sums of money. The attempt 
to crush St. Louis proved a failure, and in the end, the 
bank lost almost a million of dollars by the experiment. 

The charter of the new State bank permitted it to loan 
money to citizens of Illinois secured by mortgages on real 
estate, which it did, resulting in losses both to the bank 
and to many of the borrowers, as many honest farmers 
mortgaged their farms, and, unable to re-pay the money 
they borrowed, when due, lost them, while speculators ob- 
tained monev from the bank on worthless lots and lands, 
that it Avas compelled to take on foreclosures, and could 
realize nothing on. 

When Senator Forquer's bill authorizing a loan of 
$500,000 in aid of the Illinois and ]\Iichigan canal was 
adopted in January, high hopes were entertained by the 
public that, with the opening of spring, work would be 
commenced and vigorously prosecuted on that famous 
waterway. But spring, summer and autumn passed, and 
still the route of the great ditch remained overgrown with 
prairie grass, because the Governor failed to discover any 
capitalist, or company, willing to risk the loan of half 
a million dollars on such questionable security as 224,322 
acres of Illinois land including a portion of Chicago. 

Upon adjournment of the Legislature, in February, Mr. 
Snyder hastened to his home to meet his many business 
engagements, and was busily employed all the year. His 
law practice increased be3^ond his ability to manage it 
alone, and he invited j\Ir. Gustavus Koerner to enter into 
partnership with him. "In the latter part of 1835," says 



163 

Mr. Koerner, in his unpublished personal memoirs, "Mr. 
Snyder, the most popular lawyer in the place, proposed to 
take me into partnership in the practice of law. I cheer- 
fully agreed to it and moved into his handsome new office 
on the corner of the public square and Illinois street. Of 
course it was not on equal terms, but I thought it an ad- 
vantage in every respect, besides I had really become very 
much attached to him." 

In the late summer of 1835, Mr. Snyder's brother. Dr. 
Solomon King Snyder, was attacked with typho-mala- 
rial fever in aggravated form. To aft'ord him better care 
and attention Mr. Snyder caused him to be removed from 
the Tannehill tavern, where he lived, to his own home. 
There he lingered for some time, gradually wasting away, 
until he finally died. He was comparatively a young man, 
and had never married.* 

By proclamation of Gov. Duncan, the ninth General As- 
sembly met in extra session at Vandal ia, on the 7th of 
December, 1835, to reapportion the State in accordance 
with the census just taken, and for general needed legis- 
lation. The organization of the tw^o houses remained un- 
changed. Since adjournment of the regular session, Sena- 
tf;rs Forquer, Mather and Taylor had resigned, and Sena- 
tors Jones and Will died. Their vacancies were supplied, 
in the order named, by A. G. Herndon, Richard B. Servant, 
Job Fletcher, William Weatherford and Braxton Parish. 

The Governor stated in his message that he Ava;S unable 
to borrow $500,000 by hypothecating the canal lands, as 
that security was regarded insufficient. He thought there 
was no danger that a loan for the canal "on the credit of 
the State would ever become a charge on the treasury"; 
and recommended that it be authorized "as a pledge of 
the faith of the State." He also advised selling lots in 
(Chicago (on canal lands) from time to time to pay interest 
on said loan. In response to the Governor's suggestions, 
Mr. Herndon of Sangamon, introduced a bill in the Senate 

* See Appendix, Note A. 



164 

providing" for borrowing half a million of dollars, on the 
credit of the State for the purpose of beginning work 
on the canal. The bill Avas discussed for two days in com 
mittee of the whole with ]\Ir. Snyder in the chair, and 
when the committee finally rose, he reported back the bill 
with sundry amendments and it passed the Senate, and 
was subsequently adopted by the House. It was the first 
practical measure enacted by the Illinois Legislature for 
commencing actual construction of the canal; and it also 
inaugurated the policy of borromng money on the State's 
credit, for internal improvements, which was continued by 
the two succeeding Legislatures to the extreme of exhaust- 
ing that credit. 

The Governor , met with no difficulty in obtaining the 
$500,000 loan "on the faith of the State," and on the 4th 
day of July, 1836, excavation of the canal was begun.* By 
close of the year $39,260 was expended on the work. In 
1837 there was an additional expenditure of $350,649 ; in 
1838, $911,902 more; in 1839, $1,479,907; in 1840, $1,117,- 
702. Work was then suspended for want of funds, until 
1845, when more money was borrowed by the State, and 
with proceeds of sales of canal lands and lots, excavation 
was resumed. The canal was completed in 1848 at a total 
cost of $6,557,681. In 1882 the Legislature passed an Act 
ceding the canal, as a gift, to the general government, and 
that act of cession, submitted to the people at the ne*xt 
general election, was approved by a large majority. The 
government has not yet accepted it ; and each Governor we 
now elect still has the satisfaction of rewarding three of 
his henchmeen with the office of Canal Commissioner. 

Reapportioning the State for representation required 
but little time. The outrageous, if not unconstitutional, 
gerrymandering to suit ambitious party aspirants, as now 
practiced— an outgrowth of political corruption and de- 

* The first canal commissioners appointed were Dr. Gershom Jayne. 
Edmund Roberts and Charles Dunn; that office having been created 
by an act of the Legislature, passed Jan. 22d, 1826, "to consider, de- 
vise and adopt such measures as may be required to facilitate and 
effect" construction of the canal. 



165 

pravity— was then unknown. The task was referred to a 
committee of both houses, who soon adjusted the contiguous 
counties in compact districts, as directed by the Consti- 
tution, and their report was adopted without question 
or discussion. 

Improving material and social conditions of the people 
were demanding better roads, more bridges, better schools 
and improved means of transportation. For attaining those 
objects private capital was totally inadequate, and all were 
averse to taxation. The Legislature was then appealed to 
with the hope that something might be accomplished by 
combinations of capital. Mr. Snyder, writing from Van- 
dalia, Dec. 18th, 1835, to Mr. Koerner, said, "It would 
amuse you to see the number of persons applying for in- 
corporations for various objects. There seems to be a 
sjjirit of enterprise and speculation abroad in the land. 
If our country does not rapidly march forward to pros- 
perity it will not be for want of effort." 

Many bills were passed, as in the session before, authoriz- 
ing parties to open roads and build bridges. Colleges, 
academies and seminaries were incorporated in all parts 
of the State ; and numerous acts were passed to incorpor- 
ate turnpikes, insurance companies, railroads, and canals. 
Had all the turnpikes, canals and railroads chartered by 
that session of the Legislature been constructed no state 
in the Union, within the next forty years, would have been 
better supplied with the arteries of commerce than Illi- 
nois. Charters then cost nothing, and amounted to no more 
than an expression of the people of what they would do 
if they could. 

In the letter of Mr. Snyder, before referred to, he fur- 
ther remarked, ''On the subj-ect of our railroad, I have 
not yet presented a bill. . Two persons propose taking 
the work and completing it. I fear throwing this pow- 
erful monopoly of coal into the hands of a very few 
individuals. I am determined to draw up a charter that 
will open competition to all our citizens. I am satisfied 



166 ■ 

that, at best, it will be more or less biirtliensome to many 
of us." His fears were premature and groundless. The 
railroad he referred to, from Belleville to St. Louis, pro- 
gressed no farther than the act of incorporation, and the 
company that a year later constructed a railroad from 
the blutfs to the river to secure that ''powerful monopoly 
of coal," in a short time found it very " burthensome " 
indeed. 

Mr. Snyder, on Dec. 26th, offered a preamble reciting 
that the management of the West Point Military Academy 
"^vas perverted so that sons of only the wealthy and influ- 
ential were admitted as cadets, and the meritorious sons 
of indigent western persons were excluded, and other 
''gross partialities and acts of injustice" practiced; 
"Therefore, Resolved by the Senate, dw. That our Senators 
in Congress be instructed and our Representatives requested 
to. use their utmost endeavors to procure a reformation 
of that institution, to prevent the present abuses, and so 
alter the present mode of admission thereto, as to throw 
open the means of admission to the sons of indigent and 
meritorious citizens. 



( i 



Resolved, That if the above object cannot be attained, 
imr Senators and Representatives in Congress are hereby 
instructed and requested to use their efforts to have said 
institution abolished." 

On the 29th of December, 1835, Gov. Duncan informed 
the Legislature, by special message, of the death of Senator 
Elias K. Kane, "so that an election may be held to fill his 
vacancy during the present session of the General Assem- 
bly. " On motion of Mr. Snyder, it was resolved that the 
two houses meet in joint session that day at 2 o'clock p. 
m., for that purpose, in which the House concurred. At 
the time specified, "Mr. Speaker called Mr. Snyder to the 
chair, and the Senate, preceded by Mr. Snyder, repaired to 
the hall of the House of Representatives, and then both 
branches of the General Assembly proceeded, viva voce, to 



167 

elect a Senator."* The candidates were William L. D. 
Ewing, James Semple, Richard ]\L Young and Alexander 
]\I. Jenkins. Mr. Snyder voted for i\Ir. Jenkins for the 
first nine ballots, and then supported I\rr. Semple. On the 
twelfth ballot Ewing was elected, having received 40 votes 
and Mr. Semple 37, the other two having withdrawn. 
Messrs. Boyer and Moore cast their votes for Mr. Snyder. 

The political career of Mr. Ewing was remarkable. After 
serving four years as receiver of the land office at Van- 
dalia, he was appointed paymaster of the militia in 1825 
by Lieutenant Governor Hubbard, at the time that worthy 
attempted to usurp the executive chair in the absence of 
Gov. Coles, who accompanied Gen'l Lafayette to the east. 
He Avas elected Clerk of the House of Representatives in 
1826, and again in 1828. He was elected a member of 
the Plouse in 1830, also in 1836 and in 1840, and was 
elected Speaker of the House for each of the three terms. 
In 1832 he was elected State Snator, and, in 1834, became 
Governor of the State for fifteen days, and in 1835 was 
elected United States Senator for the term of sixty days. 
In 1842 he was again elected Clerk of the House of Repre- 
sentatives, where he had commenced in 1826, and while 
serving in that office he was elected, by the Legislature, 
State Auditor to fill the vacancy occasioned by the resig- 
nation of James Shields. He died, before the expiration 
of his term of Auditor, on the 25th of March, 1846. As 
before stated, he commanded a regiment in the Black Hawk 
Avar, and Avas a braA^e and efficient officer. 

Much of the proceedings of that second session of the 
ninth General Assembly has noAv a peculiar historic in- 
terest as illustrating the spirit and tendency of the times, 
and the ideas and aspirations of the people, reflected by 
the acts of their representatives. For instance, a bill AA^as 
passed "relative to runaway slaves." Another "to pro- 
tect stock from castor beans." The sum of $300 Avas ap- 
propriated "to the improATment of Purgatory on the St. 

* Senate Journal. 



168 

Louis and Vincennes road." "An Act for the relief of 
the persons therein named," was amended by adding, "Be 
it further enacted, That the bonds of matrimony between 
Richard French and Elizabeth, his wife, be, and the same 
are herby dissolved." A bill passed "For the relief of 
Timothy Gard," providing ''that he be allowed the pre- 
emption of the fraction on which his coal, furnace and 
stack now stand, for the purpose of erecting thereon a 
mill, the same not to exceed four acres, at fifty cents per 
acre." "An Act for the relief of Thomas Redmond," was 
passed "allowing him further time— until the first of 
Januarj^, 1837,— to pay a debt of fifty dollars due the 
State, for lot No. 25, in the town of Vandalia." Mr. 
Hacker "from the select committee to which was referred 
the petition of sundry citizens of the town of Vandalia 
praying relief for Clock Peddlers and asking the repeal 
.of the law passed Januarj^ 31st, 1835, Report, that they 
have had the subject under consideration, and are of 
the opinion that as the petitioners do not show that any 
portion of the State is suffering for the article of 
clocks, they can see no reason why the prayer of the peti- 
tioners should be granted, and ask to be discharged from 
further consideration of the subject." And they were 
discharged. 

Mr. Snyder's resolution adopted calling "the surviving 
commissioners having in charge the improvement of the 
Kaskaskia River to report to the Legislature and settle 
the unfinished business of their trust." The report of 
the surviving commissioners, EdAvard Newsham and Wil- 
liam L. D. Ewing, in response, concludes as follows : 

"The Board cannot dismiss this subject without recom- 
mending to the serious attention of the Legislature the im- 
portance of improving the navigation of this beautiful 
stream. From Shelbyville, in Shelby County, to its mouth, 
it affords, at all times, a sufficiency of water for a slack 
water navigation. The time cannot be far distant when 



169 

the value and importance of this stream will be seen, and 
the improvement of its navigation no longer deferred." 

An Act was passed "To improve the breed of cattle"— 
popularly known as "The little bull law"— that raised 
a storm of indignant protest throughout the State equal 
to that caused by the Wiggins loan, and, as then, rele- 
gated to private life for all futurity many of the legis- 
lators who voted for it. The injustice of the law, as poor 
people viewed it, consisted in rendering small bulls run- 
ning at large on the range liable to severe penalties; thus 
discriminating in favor of large bulls belonging to the rich 
and aristocratic. 

After the bill organizing the County of Will had passed, 
Senator Thomas moved "to amend 'an Act to establish 
certain counties' " by filling the blanks therein with the 
words "Cass" and "Eeynolds"; which on motion of Mr. 
Maxwell was referred to a select committee that subse- 
quently reported a bill establishing the counties of Kane, 
McHenry, Ogle, AVhiteside and Winnebago— ignoring both 
Cass and Reynolds. In 1837 the name of Cass was given 
to a newly organized county; but that honor was never 
conferred on Gov. Reynolds, because he persisted in living 
until after all required counties were formed. However, 
the Counties of Alexander, Bond, Edwards, Coles, Douglas, 
Edgar and Pope, were named, by the Legislature, after 
distinguished citizens of Illinois while yet living and still 
citizens of the State. It is a reproach to the State of 
Illinois that the name of Gov. Reynolds was not bestowed 
upon one of the counties, in recognition of his long and 
varied services to the public, in lieu of such inexcusable 
absurdities as DuPage, Christian, Champaign, Bureau, Jer- 
sey, Cumberland, etc. To counteract increasing agitation 
for removal of the State capitol from Vandalia, a repre- 
sentative in the interest of that town introduced a bill to 
remove the penitentiary from Alton to Vandalia, which 
failed to pass. Then a bill was offered in the Senate ap- 
propriating $30,000 for the erection of a new State House 



170 

at Vandalia, and was referred to the Finance Committee. 
Mr. Snyder from that committee "reported the bill back 
without amendment and recommended its rejection." It 
was rejected by 4 votes for, and 16 against it, in the Sen- 
ate. 

Early in the session resolutions were introduced in both 
houses by Democrats, endorsing the convention system, then 
coming in vogue; defending the administration of Presi- 
dent Jackson, and approving the nomination of Martin 
Van Buren for the Presidency. They were hotly opposed 
by the Whig leaders, who discussed them with spirit and 
skill; but were adopted by strict party vote. 

]\Ir. Snyder, chairman of the Finance Committee, in a 
lengthy report, stated that having been instructed by a 
Senate resolution to inquire into the cause of failure of 
certain printing ordered to be done at the last session 
of the Legislature, his committee "finds that John York 
Sawyer, the Pubic Printer, is chargeable with non-com- 
pliance with the law and his contract, with negligence, and 
with omission of part of the journal of the last session," 
ajid recommend "that suit be brought against him and 
his sureties to cover the penalties prescribed by law for 
his failure and bad faith." Mr. Sawyer, for some reason, 
attributed the charges in the report to Senator William 
Thomas, of Morgan County,' a member of the committee, 
and violently assailed him in the columns of his paper, 
the Illinois Advocate, charging him, among other things, 
with violation of his official oath. Judge Thomas as a ques- 
tion of privilege laid the matter before the Senate and 
asked for an investigation of Mr. Sa^vyer's charges. On 
motion of Mr. Snyder a committee of five was appointed 
for that purpose, composed of Messrs. Snyder, Davidson, 
Parrish, Williamson and Strode, 

On Jan. 12th, 1836, Mr. Snyder, chairman of that spe- 
cial committee, submitted to the Senate another lengthy 
report closing as follows : ' ' From the foregoing state- 
ments your committee are forced to the conclusion, that 



171 

the rankest injustice has been done to the Finance Com- 
mittee, as well as to the character and conduct of Senator 
Thomas. The more we cherish the freedom of the press 
as the surest safeguard of the liberties of the people, the 
more deeply must Ave deprecate that licentiousness which 
wantonly and maliciously impugns the motives or acts of 
innocent individuals. Nor can it be considered otherwise 
than a high aggravation to assail, without cause, the con- 
duct of public functionaries in the faithful discharge of a 
trust delegated to them by the people. Your committee 
would therefore recommend adoption of the following res- 
olutions as the expression of the sentiments of the Senate. 

*^ Resolved, That not a shade of suspicion attaches to the 
character or conduct of Senator Thomas, whom we con- 
sider entitled to the undiminished confidence of this body. 

^'Besolved, That the false and reckless charge of perjury 
preferred by John York Sawyer against one of our body 
ought to be met with the utmost reprobation and repelled 
with indi2;nation. " 

The report and resolutions were adopted unanimously. 
Adjournment of the Legislature six days later, and the 
death of Mr. Sawyer shortly after, terminated for all time 
the unpleasant controversy. 

The Senate received from the House a message stating 
that it had adopted the folloAAang resolutions : 

^'Besolved, That our Senators in Congress be instructed, 
and our Representatives be requested to use all honorable 
means to procure the passage of a law of Congress grant- 
ing to the State of Illinois the right to enter, on a credit 
of ten years without interest, at $1.25 per acre, a quantity of 
United States lands, lying within said State, not exceed- 
ing five hundred thousand acres; the said lands, or the 
proceeds thereof, to be applied, under the direction of 
the Legislature, to aid said State in works of internal 
improvements; and to be selected and entered by connnis- 
sioners appointed by the Governor. ' ' The other resolution 
authorized the Governor ''in case such law should be 



172 

passed by Congress, to appoint commissioners to ex- 
ecute its purpose." But the Senate refused to concur in 
that modest request, and it devolved upon the next Legis- 
lature to apply the credit of the State more directly to 
raise funds for internal improvements. As the hour ap- 
proached for adjourning the second session of the ninth 
General Assembly, on the 18th of January, 1836, Lieut. 
Gov. Jenkins called ]\Ir. Mills to the chair, whereupon Mr. 
Snyder moved that the thanks of the Senate be ' ' presented 
to the Speaker of the Senate," for his dignified, able and 
impartial conduct while presiding over their deliberations,- 
etc, "which was unanimously adopted." 

The amount of business transacted at that bri^f session 
of the Legislature, between the 7th of December, 1835, and 
18th of January, 1836, is amazing. There was then no 
criminal waste of time and' the people 's money by legisla- 
tors, as at the present day. No absentees were reported, 
excepting by cause of sickness. Each day of the week, 
from Monday morning at 10 o'clock until dark Saturday 
evening, the members Avere busily employed in the conscien- 
tious discharge of their duties, excepting sufficient time for 
their meals and necessary sleep, with but one day ( Christ- 
mas) vacation during the session. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Condition of the State in 1836 — Mr. Snyder again a candidate for 
Congress — Is elected over Gov. Reynolds and William J. Gate- 
wood — Tamarawa, the town projected by Mr. Snyder and Gen'l 
Semple— "The City of High Bluffs" — The tenth General Assem- 
bly — System of Internal Improvements inaugurated — Removal of 
the State Capitol authorized. 

For three or four years there had been a growing desire 
among the people of Illinois for improved means of trans- 
portation. Charters were obtained in abundance from the 
Legislature for railroads, canals and improvement of n,av- 
igation of the rivers ; but all were fruitless of practical re- 
sults from want of funds to defray cost of their construc- 
tion. The question of actually making those much desired 
internal improvements was agitated by all classes with 
increasing interest until it became the absorbing subject 
ot thought and discussion to the exclusion of all other pub- 
lie matters. The people saw, with envy, at the close of 
1835, tha,t Massachusetts had 140 miles of railroads in 
successful operation; Pennsylvania had 218 miles of rail- 
roads, and was digging 914 miles of canals; and several 
other States were busily building railroads, canals and 
other public works. And, to add to their discontent, our 
nearest neighbor, even Indiana, had also embarked in 
similar works, and was pushing them to completion with 
great energy. They could see no reason why Illinois 
should be permitted to lag behind other States, no better 
off than it, in the march of modern progress. Our level 
prairies they thought, were especially adapted for rail- 
roads and artificial waterways, rendering their construc- 
tion far less expensive than in New York, Pennsylvania or 
Indiana. The credit of the State, they said, was ample 
for procuring all funds necessary to make internal im- 
provements that would cause it to rank in trade and com- 
merce with other states in the Union. It was also argued 



174 

that improved facilities of travel and transportation would 
so increase the population and wealth of the State, and, 
consequently, its revenues, that payment of annual in- 
terest, and speedy liquidation of the principal of the debt, 
would not be burdensome. The little trouble had by the 
Governor in obtaining a half million dollar loan on the 
State's credit for the canal, and the energetic prosecution 
of that enterprise, seemed to justify those views, and before 
the next general election the matter of internal improve- 
ments took absolute possession of the people's minds, per- 
verting the common sense and blinding the judgment of 
the most staid and conservative of them. 

At the beginning of the year 1836 the population of 
Illinois numbered over 270,000, of which 2,244 were free 
negroes, 340 were indentured and registered slaves, and 
184 were slaves held under the old French laws. The 
State then had 60 organized counties, 339 manufacturing 
establishments, besides 916 mills, of all kinds, and 142 dis- 
tilleries. The enrolled "cornstalk" militia numbered 44,- 
141. The total revenues of the State from all sources for 
the fiscal year amounted to $97,923, and the expenses of 
maintaining the State government for the same year was 
$78,606, leaving a net balance in the treasury of $19,316. 
Notwithstanding the public indebtedness of over $700,000, 
the financial condition of the State was sound and that of 
the people exceedingly favorable. 

The elections to be held in August,. 1836, in Illinois, for 
Congressmen, members of the Legislature, county offices, 
and, later, for President and Vice President, excited more 
than usual interest among the people, and occasioned 
more than the usual activity among the politicians. The 
prominent local issue with the people was the question of 
internal improvements by the State. But upon that they 
were by no means unanimous. A large class were opposed, 
as a matter of principle, to incurring a public debt for 
. such purposes. They wanted the improvements but thought 
they should be constructed by private enterprise and cap- 



175 

ital. Many old fogies were opposed to railroads for the 
reason that they would be too destructive of timber, be- 
lieving that the roads were made of split wooden rails laid 
closely together * ' corduroy ' ' fashion ! There was strong 
opposition to the Canal in the southern part of the State, 
on the ground that its benefits would be altogether local; 
that it was a sectional improvment calculated to build up 
the territory contiguous to it to the detriment of the 
balance of the State. But a majority of the pople wildly 
advocated the immediate construction of a network of 
railroads and canals all over the State regardless of cost. 

Several candidates were in the field for popular favors 
before the Legislature adjourned, in January, and even 
before it convened in December. Among the earliest an- 
nouncements of the kind was that of Governor Reynolds, 
who, wholly for the good of the country, again consented 
to permit his friends to ask for his re-election to Congress. 
The Whigs, as a party, were beginning to display consider- 
able vitality, as their numbers in the State had largely 
increased since the last Presidential election, owing to in- 
creasing objections to Gen'l Jackson's financial policy and 
the unpopularity of Van Buren in the west. The plan of 
holding conventions to exclude undesirable aspirants from 
running Avho imagined they Avere the people's idols, or 
popular enough to be elected, was not yet adopted in the 
State by either party, and caucuses were not always pow- 
erful enough to serve ^Irat end. 

Mr. Snyder wa*:; chosen, two years before, by the anti- 
Reynolds facti^.n of the Democracy in the First Congres- 
sional districLi, to oppose the Old Ranger, and was defeated. 
AVith that result neither himself or his supporters were 
satisfied, and they concluded to try the contest again. 
Upou his return from Vandalia he announced to the public 
that he was again a candidate for Congress and intended 
^ ^1 make an active canvass of the district. About the same 

P 

c 



176 

time, Hon. Wm. Jefferson Gatewood,^ of Shawneetown, 
also announced his candidacy for Congress in the same 
district. Reynolds and Snyder resided in the same town, 
were both Van Buren Democrats in perfect harmony on 
all public questions. ' ' Jeff ' ' Gatewood, as he was general- 
ly known, was born in Kentucky in 1804 and came to Ill- 
inois in 1823. He taught school in Franklin and Gallatin 
counties, at the same time studying law; was admitted 
to the bar in 1828, and located in Shawneetown. The next 
year he was appointed special commissioner to sell for the 
State the Gallatin county saline lands donated to Illinois 
by the general government. He vras elected to the Legis- 
lature from Gallatin county in 1830 and to the State Sen- 
ate in 183-1. He was a AA^hig candidate for Congress in 
1836 ; and, changing to the Democracy, Avas elected to the 
State Senate in 1838. He died, at the American House, in 
Springfield, while attending the Supreme court, on the 8th 
day of January, 1842, aged 38 years. He was tall, large 
and fine looking, of jovial disposition; a good speaker and 
ready debater, and was considered a sound and able lawyer. 

His party (Whig) in 1834 was in the minority, but 
gaining strength to that extent that he was encouraged to 
see a prospect of success over the divided majority whose 
candidates were both from the same county. 

The Madison county circuit court was held in February, 
1836. On Saturday before ?+s commencement, a raw, cold, 
unpleasant day, Mr. Snyder and li'^ partner, Mr. Koerner, 

* It was related in. "Egypt" that when Jeptha Kardin was Circuit 
Judge of the Gallatin district, in 1836, in the progress- of a case before 
him, Jeff Gatewood. one of the attorneys, became involved in a 
quarrel with him when arguing a motion, and losing control of his 
temper, called His Honor a liar. Any other Judge w^^uld have 
promptly fined the impudent lawj^er for contempt; but that was not 
Judge Jeptha's idea of judicial discipline. "Sheriff," said he, "c:'djourn 
court for one hour, and bring Mr. Gatewood to the vacant lot oehind 
the court house." That order was at once executed, and the Judge 
and lawyer immediately "shed" their coats, and proceeded to seUle 
the insult by wage of battle. The conflict was short, sharp and d'^- 
cisive. Though Gatewood was a stout, athletic man, the Judjfe> 
thrashed him soundly, and in less than half an hour was again (^ 
the bench dispensing law and justice. 



177 

rode on horseback from Belleville to Edwardsville, 30 
miles. On Sunday morning Mr. Snyder was attacked by 
a severe chill, ushering in a violent visitation of pneumonia 
that confined him to his room for many days. It was late 
in April before he had regained his strength sufficiently 
to undertake the canvass of his district or attempt any 
unusual exertion, and then his physicians positively forbade 
him to make any public speeches or unduly expose him- 
self. In writing to Mr. Koerner from Equality, Gallatin 
county, July 20, 1836, he said: "My health is rather im- 
proved, if any change. I believe I could be easily elected 
if it was in my power to make speeches and the usual ex- 
ertion. I will beat Mr. Gatewood in his own county, but 
my opinion is that the election will again be close. If I 
am again beaten it will be the last time I will run. I have 
not yet met A\dth Gov. Reynolds and have just learned that 
he is married. ' ' He then requested Mr. Koerner to see Ober- 
iijueller and Maus, in Belleville, and Imhoff in Lebanon, 
grocery keepers, and "have them to furnish the people 
liquor on election day for me; for it would be mortifying 
to me not to receive a majority in my own county." 

Gov. Reynolds did not return from Washington to can- 
vass the district until a week or two before the election ; but 
sent his constituents many printed circulars and communi- 
cations in the newspapers. , He desired they would know 
that, as a faithful servant of the people, he could not de- 
sert his post in Congress to go home and work for re-elec- 
tion. His reluctance to neglect official duties was very 
commendable indeed ; but it transpired that a more tender, 
if not higher, motive detained him at the capitol, when the 
papers published his marriage, in May, 1836, to Miss Sarah 
Wilson, a cultured and refined lady of Maryland. 

The year 1836 marks the dawn of a new era in Illinois^ 
a transition from the old order of things to the new; for 
which the public mind had been preparing for some years 
preceding. Old conservative business methods were dis- 
carded, and a loose system of unlimited credit substituted. 
-12 



178 

The spirit of speculation, fostered by inflated paper cur- 
rency and prospects of extensive internal improvements, 
became epidemic. People were distracted with avidity to 
get rich quickly. New towns were projected everywhere. 
Sedate business men, lawyers, preachers, mechanics, farm- 
ers, were seized wdth the belief that every town they platted 
would soon grow to the proportions of a city, and large 
fortunes could be realized by sale of town lots. More faith 
was placed in improved river navigation for development 
of the countoy than in railroads and canals, that people 
knew little or nothing about. Consequently every eligible 
site along the rivers Avas staked out for a new toAvn. 

Among the many victims of the town-building mania 
were Adam W. Snyder and General James Semple. In 
partnership they laid out a iovm on the west bank of the 
Kaskaskia river in the southeastern corner of St. Clair 
county and named it Tamarawa, to perpetuate the name 
and memory of the Tamarwah Indians who formerly in- 
habited that region and westward to Cahokia. The Ta- 
mar-wahs were one of the five tribes constituting the Illi- 
nois confederacy; the other four being the Peorias, Caho- 
kias, Kaskaskias and Michigamies. P. de Charlevoix vis- 
ited Cahokia in October, 1721, and says in his journal : ''AA^e 
lay this night in a village of the Caoquias and Tamarouas^ 
two tribes which have been united, and together compose 
no very numerous canton."* 

The French alphabet having no "w" the vowels ''6, u" 
are employed to express the sound of that letter, and by 
the rules of French orthography the terminal letter of a 
word when preceded by a vowel is silent. Consequently, 
Ta-mar-wah, as Charlevoix pronounced it, approximates 
almost exactly the Indian pronunciation of their tribal 
name. The third ''a," between "r" and "w," in the 
name as spelled by Messrs. Snyder and Semple, was su- 
perfluous and wrong. Tamaroa, as the name is now usu- 

* Journal of a voyage to North America, etc., by P. de Charlevoix; 
translation; London, 1761, vol. 2, p. 218. 



179 

ally spelled in modern Illinois histories and maps is an un- 
warranted perversion. 

They chose a beautiful site for their prospective town, on 
a high bluff sloping gently domi to the river— known as 
''Edgar's Bluff "—in the lower edge of Twelve-mile prairie, 
with an uninterrupted view of the Kaskaskia and its tim- 
bered hills and bottoms for several miles It was on Claim 
No. 2209, Survey 607, in what is now Fayetteville precinct, 
a'he town was platted in 48 blocks, each 300 feet square, di- 
vided into 12 lots, six on each side of an alley 20 feet wide : 
and the blocks Avere separated from each other by streets 
60 feet wide, corresponding with the points of the com- 
pass. The town plat certified to before John Murray a 
Justice of Peace in Belleville, was filed for record on 
the 21st of May, 1836. 

Within a short time after the plat was recorded, and 
after extensive advertising, a public sale of lots was held 
on the town site; and lengthy credit being given on de- 
ferred payments, the lots sold briskly. To "boom" the 
town and encourage bidding;, and also perhaps by way of 
electioneering incidentally— as both proprietors were prom- 
inent politicians and candidates for office— a small steam- 
boat was brought up the Okaw and tied up at the landing 
on "AVater street." Aboard the craft was a barrel of 
whiskey, to which the crowd had free access, with lunch for 
all at noon. 

Several purchasers of lots began immediately to build 
on them. On one a tavern was erected ; on others, dwell- 
ings, store rooms, a blacksmith shop and a school house. 
A flatboat ferry was established to cross the river, and near 
by on the river bank a steam saw mill was built. By close 
of the year Tamarawa was quite a flourishing village. So; 
promising was the venture that Mr. Snyder, the next year," 
made an addition to it of 18 blocks and some fractional lots, 
filing his plat thereof, certified to before Esquire Robert 
K. Fleming on July 10th, 1837. For two or three years 
thereafter Tamarawa prospered and for awhile its eon- 



180 

tinned life and growth seemed assured, but it went down 
in the financial crash occasioned by reaction upon failure 
of the great internal improvement folly, and, sharing in 
the fate of hundreds of similar enterprises in the State, 
vanished from the face of the earth. A few years after 
its collapse not a vestige of the town remained, and for 
more than half a century its unmarked site has been com- 
prised in a fine f arjn. While the town still seemed to have 
a favorable future, in 1838, Messrs. Snyder and Semple 
dissolved partnership and divided the property remaining 
unsold. As they purchased the land at a low price they 
lost very little if anything, by failure of their town. 

James Semple was born in Green county, Kentucky, on 
the 5th of January 1787. He was educated at country 
schools, and studied law, and when admitted to the bar 
commenced the practice of law in Louisville, Kentucky. On 
March 29th, 1820, he married Miss Ellen Duff Green, of 
Horseshoe Bottom, Russell county, Kentucky, and in the 
same year moved to Chariton county, ^Missouri, where his 
A^dfe died childless, July 12th, 1821. 'in March, 1828, he re- 
moved to Edwardsville, 111., and on the 5th of June, 1833, 
married Mrs. j\Iary Stevenson. ]\Iizner, niece of Gov. Shad- 
rach Bond. In that year he was elected, by the Legislature, 
Attorney General which he soon resigned. He represented 
Madison county in the 8th, 9th and 10th General Assem- 
blies, 1832- '38, and in the last two was elected Speaker. 
In the Black Hawk war he served as a private in Capt. A. 
W. Snyder's company. He afterwards was a General of 
militia. In 1837 he Avas appointed by President Van 
Buren, Charge d' Affairs to New Grenada, South America. 
Returning, in 1842, he was elected Judge of the Supreme 
Court, and served from Jan. 16th to Aug. 16th, 1813, 
Avhen he resigned to accept from Gov. Ford the appointment 
of U. S. Senator, and was elected by the next Legislature to 
fill the unexpird term of Senator McRoberts. He died at 



181 

his home in Jersey county on Dec. 20th, 1866, in the 69th 
year of his age, and was buried in Bellefountaine cemetery, 
St. Louis. His wife, one son and three daughters survived 
him, the son, Eugene Semple, serving a few years ago as 
Governor of the State of AVashington. Six feet, four 
inches in height, of splendid proportions, with strong, ex- 
pressive features, dark hair and eyes, General Semple 
was a conspicuous figure in State history, a good lawyer, 
successful financier and statesman, and a cultured gentle- 
man. ' 

An account of all the dead towns of Illinois would make 
a voluminous and very interesting chapter of its history 
that should be written and perpetuated. The mania for 
speculating in new western toAvns spread eastward from 
Illinois, gaining intensity until it almost equaled the 
furor incited by John Law and his "company of the west," 
in Paris in the early years of the eighteenth century. Farm- 
ers sold their live stock, and, in some instances, their lands 
for money to invest in towTi lots. Others borrowed to the 
extent of their credit for the same purpose. Eastern 
merchants eagerly bartered their goods for lots in new 
western towns they had not seen and never before heard 
of. There was a general rush to secure property in those 
towns before they became large cities and their real estate 
values had unduly appreciated. That strange infatuation 
invited fraud, and many frauds were perpetrated. 

In Belleville there resided a sharp Cahokia Frenchman 
having no regular vocation, and of the class of speculators 
now known as "promoters." He had some education, was 
full of resources and sleepless energy, but short on con- 
scientious scruples. Having failed in several enterprises, he 
founded a new town, altogether on paper, as a bold venture. 
In St. Louis he employed a skilled draughtsman to draw 
the plan of a large town located on the east bank of the 
Kaskaskia river, several miles above Tamarawa, to which 



182 

he gave the name of the "City of High Bluffs." Whether 
or not he owned any land on the picturesque Okaw at that 
point is now not material. The "city" was represented 
to be situated in the midst of the most beautiful natural 
surrounding's on high open ground graduall}^ declining 
in grade to the river. The lots, neatly drawn, were num- 
bered far up into the hundreds, with finely embellished 
parks, and here and there a graceful church edifice. On 
two corner lots were pictured solid-looking bank buildings 
of Gothic architecture, and on others w^ere school houses, 
co] leges, hotels and hospitals. Near the river w^ere shown 
great warehouses, two mills and various factories. A 
heavily-ladened steamboat was depicted approaching the 
V'harf from below ; other boats were at the landing, taking 
on and putting off huge quantities of freight, and still an- 
other boat loaded down to the guards, was just leaving the 
city to ascend the noble river. All of that was litho- 
graphed on large sheets of heavy paper in the highest 
style of art. Supplied with a number of copies, the "pro- 
moter" left for the eastern cities late in the fall. He re- 
turned in early spring by way of New Orleans and the 
Mississippi, with an immense stock of miscellaneous mer- 
chandise he had received in exchange for city lots, which 
he converted into cash as speedily as possible. He was not 
at home Avhen agents of eastern mercantile houses came 
west to look up their city property, and his dupes were 
unwilling to incur additional loss by prosecuting him. 

German immigrants who had for three or four years 
come into Illinois in gradually increasing numbers, ill 1836 
literally poured into it by thousands. They brought with 
them considerable capital in specie, and the industry and 
frugality characteristic of their race. They came — not as 
did the Kentuckians, to run for office — but to find new and 
permanent hoHies where, by labor and thrift, they might 
better their condition. They went to work contentedly, 



183 

and utilized the means at hand to the best possible advant- 
age. Had our restless native residents emulated their ex- 
ample and adopted their conservative business methods, 
improved methods of transportation demanded by develop- 
ing commerce and increasing productions, would in time 
have been introduced into this State as needed — and by 
private capital, as was done subsequently— without public 
embarrassment. 

The people of Illinois, prior to 1837, were prosperous, 
but had become dissatisfied with the slow, certain profits, 
of legitimate, patient, industry, and were infected with 
the phantasm of quickly acquired wealth. The speediest 
vray to realize that object, they concluded, was to place the 
State on a material and financial parity with the older 
eastern States by constructing at once an extensive system 
of railroads, completing the Illinois and Michigan canal, 
and removing obstructions in the principal rivers of the 
State that impeded their safe and expeditious navigation. 
Visionary demagogues proclaimed, on the stump and in 
the newspapers, the ability of the State to make all such 
improvements by borrowing money upon its credit, without 
imposing any burdens upon its treasury or upon the peo- 
ple. The bonds of the State, they said, would sell in 
either home or foreign markets at enormous premiums; 
those premiums, indeed, would easily defray all cost of 
the proposed improvements, and the bonds would be re- 
turned to the State and canceled. And then, they urged, 
the net earnings of the railroads and canal, thus acquired, 
would for many years pay all ordinary expenses of State 
government, thereby assuring the people from taxation. 
Such egregious nonsense as that seemed plausible to back- 
woodsmen' who had never seen a railroad or canal, and 
they gave it their unqualified assent. 

The State election occurred on the 19th of August, 1836, 
resulting in a sweeping victorj^ for the Democrats. In the 
First Congressional district Adam W. Snyder was elected 



184 

by a small but decisive majority:* 4,245 votes were polled 
for him, 4,062 for Reynolds, and 2,127 for Gatewood. 
Those figures probably represented the actual strength of 
the two Democratic candidates in the district, Mr. Gate- 
wood having no doubt received the entire Whig vote, and 
that alone. Had Mr. Gatewood not been a candidate Gov. 
Reynolds would undoubtedly have been re-elected, as the 
Whigs generally regarded him, of the two Democratic can- 
didates, the least obnoxious to their party and principles. 
Though successful by the narrow majority of 183, Mr. 
Snyder and his friends were highly elated, regarding his 
election a brilliant victory, retrieving his defeat two years 
before, and carrying St. Clair county, the home of himself 
and Gov. Rejmolds, by the handsome plurality of 682 — al- 
most three to one. When the official returns of the elec- 
tion were received, and the result definitely known at Belle- 
ville, the friends of Mr. Snyder, irrespective of party, cele- 
brated his success at the County seat in mass meeting and 
an all-night jubilee. After dark they formed in proces- 
sion on the public square, and with fife and drums, flags 
and torches, marched to his residence. There thev fired 
a salute with Hint-lock muskets, rifles and horse pistols, 
and then serenaded the Congressman-elect with an impro- 
vised band of flute, fife and violins. In response to that 
demonstration interspersed with deafening cheers, Mr. Sny- 

* The following is the vote in detail for Congress in each county 
of the district: 

Counties. Snyder. Reynolds. Gatewood. 

St. Clair 1080 398 83 

Madison 574 412 650 

Macoupin 101 624 203 

Randolph 316 305 233 

Washington 117 226 20 

Clinton 137 273 37 

Bond 273 91 117 

Perry 220 114 28 

Jackson 177 203 23 

Gallatin 301 529 391 

Johnson 150 101 50 

Alexander 108 177 51 

Franklin 314 442 13 

Pope 153 167 226 

Monroe 224 

4245 4062 2127 



185 

der appeared on his front porch and thanked his support- 
ers and friends in a neat speech that was received with bois- 
terous applause and more fusilading. The houses of the 
town, with few exceptions, were illumnated with numerous 
tallow candles in their windows, and bonfires were kept 
burning- in the streets all night. 

Zadok Casy was returned to Congress in the Second dis- 
trict, and AYilliam L. May was elected in the Third. 

Mr. Snyder was in impaired health all summer. The 
attack of pneumonia he had in February was, in truth, the 
beginning of the end— the first skirmish of a long conflict 
with an enemy too powerful to be successfully resisted by 
his deficient physical resources. Inflammatory disease, 
like an adroit general, attacks the weaknest point, which, in 
his case was, unfortunately, his pulmonary organs. He 
was sustained, however, by his indomitable will and ambi- 
tion, and continued actively attending to his multifarious 
duties and business without cessation. 

The universal and incessant discussion of the internal 
improvement question began, after the election, to assume 
the definite form of popular instructions to the recently 
elected State representatives. Meetings for that purpose 
were held in many of the counties, and delegates selected 
to a convention called to meet at the State capitol simulta- 
neously with the meeting of the next Legislature, in De- 
cember. 

That Legislature, elected in August, 1836, including some 
of the hold-over Senators, was, for mental strength and 
ability of its members the most remarkable of any yet 
chosen in Illinois. No previous General Assembly of our 
State, and very few since, have comprised such an array 
or brainy, talented men, or as many Avho subsequently 
gained such conspicuous eminence in the annals of the 
State and nation. In the Senate were Orville H. Brown- 
ing, Cyrus Edwards, William J. Gatewood, John S. 
Hacker, Robert K. IMcLaughlin, Henry I. Mills, William 
Thomas, John D. Whiteside and John D. Wood. And in 



186 

the House were Edward D. Baker, John Hogan, Milton 
Carpenter, Newton Cloud, Richard M. Cullom (father of 
U. S. Senator Cullom), John Dement, John Doug-herty, 
Stephen A. Douglas, Jesse K. Dubois, Ninian W. Edwards, 
Wm. L. D. Ewing, Augustus C. French, John J. Hardin, 
Abraham Lincoln, Usher F. Linder, John Logan (father of 
Gen. John A. Logan), John A. McClernand, James Sem- 
ple, John Moore, AVilliam A. Richardson, James H. Ralston 
and Robert Smith. In this list are found one President 
of the United States, six avIio have occupied seats in the 
U. S. Senate, eight Congressmen, three Governors, three 
Lieutenant Governors, two Attorney Generals, five State 
Treasurers, tAvo State Auditors, one Superintendent of 
Schools, and several Judges. 

At the November election, Martin Van Buren, for Pres- 
ident, and Richard M. Johnson, for Vice President, carried 
Illinois by the plurality of only 2,983, many democrats 
refusing to vote for Mr. Van Buren, and some objecting to 
Johnson. The Whigs, not having adopted the convention 
method of uniting on one candidate, voted for three or 
four, Hugh L. White, Daniel Webster, A¥illie P. Mangum 
and William Henrv Harrison. The Democrats were dis- 
appointed in the result of the election and their meagre 
majoriy in the State; and the Whigs correspondingly 
elated, as it was really encouraging evidence of the grow- 
ing strengh of their party. 

The Internal Improvement Convention met at Vandalia, 
simultaneously with the convening of the Legislature, Dec. 
5th, 1836, and Avas largely attended. The delegates, some 
of , whom were members of the General Assembly, were 
wildly enthusiastic for railroads at any cost. For two days 
they deliberated upon the momentous question before them, 
and finally embodied their conclusions in a bill to be pre- 
sented to the Legislature authorizing the construction of a 
system of railroads, and improvement of rivers for navi- 
gation, the estimated cost of Avhich amounted to $7,450,000, 
to be paid for by the sale of bonds of the State. The bill 



187 

was accompanied by an elaborate memorial setting forth in 
florid language, the incomputable benefits, the State and 
people would derive from the proposed improvements, and 
clearly demonstrating the perfect feasibility of the grand 
scheme. 

Only a sunnnary of the proceedings and results of the 
tenth and eleventh -General Assemblies (sufficient to 
maintain the primary design of presenting an outline of 
the history and progress of the State during the period of 
Mr. Snyder's life in it), is permissible in the limits of this 
memoir. That the tenth General Assembly, especially 
noted for the intellectual strength of its leaders— admit- 
fdly the albest Legislature that, to that time, had ever con- 
vened in the State— should enact the reckless and unreas- 
onable measures it did, baffles all explanation. The legis- 
lation of the eleventh General Assembly was no improve- 
ment whatever, on that of the tenth ; and, but for exhaus- 
tion of the State's credit, would probably have been worse 
— if such were possible. 

The Whigs had the ascendency in the Senate, and, by 
a strict party vote, elected William i\I. Davidson its pre- 
siding officer,' in place of Lieut. Gov. Jenkins, who had 
resigned. Jesse B. Thomas, Jr., was again elected Secre- 
tary. The House Avas overwhelmingly Democratic, and 
re-elected James Semple, Speaker, over Newton Cloud and 
John Dement. It is perhaps worthy of remark that in 
that election for Speaker, Mr. Douglas and ]\Ir. Lincoln 
voted too'ether for IMr. Cloud. 

In his message to the Legislature, Gov. Duncan expressed 
more decided approval of internal improvement legislation, 
and reiterated his recommendation of establishing free 
schools, and otherwise liberally encouraging the cause of 
general education. He emphasized his endorsement of the 
new banking system -by urging the Legislature to increase 
the State's subscription to its capital stock from the 
$100,000 authorized by the last Legislature to $1,000,000. 

He then caustically criticized the administration of Pres- 



188 

ident Jackson, and suggested that its many errors and 
offences merited from the representatives of the people of 
Illinois an unequivocal and emphatic rebuke. That cheap 
and uncalled for "buncomb" injected in his message, for 
political effect, was answered by the House by a set of 
resolutions commending and praising the Jackson adminis- 
tration in the most "unequivocal and emphatic" language, 
which were adopted by the vote of 64 to 18. The consid- 
eration of those resolutions provoked another irritating 
discussion in the House of the slavery question, resulting 
in another set of resolutions, as expressive of the sentiments 
of the people of Illinois, condemning the interference with, 
or disturbance of, the institution of slavery as it then 
existed in the southern States. 

That set of resolutions Avas adopted by the votes of every 
member of the House excepting those of Abraham Lincoln 
and five others. 

On the 14tli of December the Legislature elected a U. 
S. Senator to succeed AVilliam L. D. Ewing, who had served 
out the unexpired term of Hon. Elias K. Kane. Five can- 
didates for the place were presented, who received, on the 
third ballot, the following number of votes: Richard M. 
Young* 68, Samuel McRoberts 24, Archibald Williams 17, 
William L. D. Ewing 12, Thomas C. Browne 7. 

* Judge Young was born in Kentucky in 179S. and, coming to Illinois 
at an early age, settled in Jonesboro, Union County, and there prac- 
ticed law for some years. He was tall and spare made; a fine 
speaker, well learned in the law, and a cultured gentJeTian. He 
was elected circuit judge by the legislature in 1824. and when the 
judicial system was reorganized by the next Legislature he was 
retained one of the Supreme Court justices. He served on the bench 
eleven years, and, in that time assisted in revising the statutes. In 
3839 Gov. Carlin appointed him one of the fund commissioners to 
negotiate a foreign loan for the State. His failure in that agency 
did not seriously affect his public standing, as, shortly before the 
expiration of his Senatorial term, Feb. 4, 1843, he was again elected 
one of the associated justices of the Supreme Court. He served in 
that capacity until January, 1847, when he resigned to accept the 
appointment, from President Polk, of Commissioner of the general 
land office. He was relieved of that position by the change of ad- 
ministraJiion, in 1849. I^ater he served as Clerk of the national house 
of representatives, and was then for some time a claim agent in 
Washington City. By stress of political and financial vicissitudes his 
overtaxed mind gave way, and he was confined in an insane asylum, 
in Washington, a raving maniac, part of the time restrained by 
manacles and chains, until he was mercifully relieved by death in 
1853. 



189 

On the 16tli of January, 1837, the Legislature held an- 
other election, then for State offices, selecting Levi Davis for 
Auditor, John D. Whiteside , Treasurer, and Usher F. Lin- 
der, Attorney General. 

The two questions monopolizing the interest of the tenth 
General Assembly, were internal improvements and re- 
moval of the State capitol. Stephen A. Douglas, one of 
the six representatives of Morgan County, was chosen by 
the internal improvement convention, before its adjourn- 
ment, to present to the Legislature the plan it had formu- 
lated for a system of railroads and river improvements. 
That he did by introducing a set of resolutions specifically 
detailing the improvements to be made, and setting forth 
that the Avork should be done, and the improvements be 
owned, by the State, and the necessary funds to pay ex- 
penses of construction should be borrowed by the State 
upon its faith. His resolutions were referred to the Com- 
mittee on Internal Improvements, and by it favorably 
reported vnth. a bill written by himself containing their 
salient provisions. 

After ample discussion, and some amendments enlarging 
the original plan, the bill was passed in the House, on the 
27th of February, 1837, by 61 votes in its favor to 25 
against it, and passed in the Senate by about the same 
proportionate vote. 

Among the twenty-five dissenters in the House were 
William A. Richardson, John J. Hardin and William A. 
Minshall, In the Senate it was opposed by 0. H. Brown- 
ing, William Thomas and a few others. The Council of 
Revision returned the bill with the objection that the public 
works it proposed could be safely and economically con- 
structed only by private capital and incorporated compan- 
ies chartered by the State. Under the leadership of Stephen 
A. Douglas the bill was again passed by the constitutional 
majority vote over the veto. 

Acting no doubt upon the maxim that "a public debt 
is a public blessing," the bill provided— to commence on— 



190 

the following grand works, at the estimated cost set forth 
for each, and authorized the sale of State bonds to meet the 
sums thus^ appropriated : 

For construction of a railroad from Galena to 

Cairo $3,500,000 

For the Northern Cross Railroad, through 

Springfield 1,800,000 

For the Alton and Mt. Carmel Railroad 1,600,000 

For the Peoria and Warsaw Railroad 700,000 

For the Branch of Central Railroad to Terre 

Haute 650,000 

For the Branch of Central Railroad to Alton . . 600,000 
For the Bloomington and Mackinaw Railroad. . . 350,000- 
For the Belleville and Mt. Carmel Railroad. . 150,000 
For improvement of navigation of the Wabash, 

Illinois and Rock Rivers, each $100,000. 300,000 

For improvement of the Little Wabash and 

Kaskaskia, each $50,000 - 100,000 

To placate those counties having no rivers to be 
improved, and not traversed by any of the 
contemplated railroads, there was appro- 
priated, for improvements of their roads and 

bridges 200,000 

Making a grand total of 10,200,000 

Added to that an Act was passed increasing the stock 
of the State bank $2,000,000, and of the Shawneetown 
branch $1,400,000. Another bill was passed directing the 
sale of the ]\Iichigan and Illinois canal lands to the amount 
of $1,000,000, and authorizing another $500,000 loan to be 
expended on the canal in 1838. 

The law of 1819 directing removal of the State capitol 
from Kaskaskia to Vandalia, specified that it should remain 
at the latter place for twenty years. That limit was im- 
posed in contemplation of the probable northward shifting 
of the State's center of population which by that time 
would necessitate a corresponding change of location of 



191 

the capitol. The marvelous growth of Chicago, and rapid 
settling of the northern counties after the Black Hawk 
war, began to demand a permanent central location of 
the seat of government at, or near, the geographical center 
of the State. A bill was passed as before stated, at the 
first session of the ninth General Assembly, January, 1835, 
submitting the question of relocation of the capitol ; but as 
neither Vandalia, Springfield, Alton, Jacksonville or Peo- 
ria could command the required majority, no farther action 
was taken. 

In 1836 the State House in Vandalia was in such dilapi- 
dated condition as to be scarcely tenable. A new one would 
have to be provided, and as a bill providing for the erec- 
tion of a new State building in Vandalia could not be 
passed, one was introduced for removal of the capitol. It 
appropriated the sum of $50,000 for a State House, condi- 
tioned on donation of an equal sum by the citizens of the 
town in which it was decided the capitol Avould be fixed. 
That measure was the special charge of the two Senators 
and seven Representatives of Sangamon County, since 
known in history as the "Long Nine." 

The members of that delegation were remarkable for 
length, averaging six feet in height each. They were 
Archer G. Herndon and Job Fletcher, Senators, and Nin- 
ian W. Edwards, "William F. Elkins, Dan Stone, John 
Dawson, Abraham Lincoln, Andrew McCormick and Robert 
L. Wilson, Representatives. They were astute and influ- 
ential men, united in their efforts to secure removal of the 
capitol to Springfield, the object for which they were 
elected. They succeeded in having their bill passed, on the 
25th of February, 1837, by log rolling Avith the friends 
of every other measure presented; or threatening to with- 
hold their support from the same, the canal and other in- 
ternal improvements especially; and by the practice of all 



43 


53 


73 


15 


9 


1 


15 


16 


15 


12 


11 


6 


16 


14 


6 


10 


•3 




7 


15 


7 



192 

arts of persuasion and coercion known to influence recalcit- 
rant, or indifferent, members.* 

On the 28th of February the two houses met to select by 
ballot, a location for the permanent seat of government 
of the State. Four ballots were taken resulting as fol- 
lows : 

Springfield 35 

Jacksonville 14 

Vandalia 16 

Peoria 16 

Alton 15 

Illiopolis — 

Scattering 25 

The Legislature then elected a board of fund commis- 
sioners to negotiate the loans authorized for making the 
grand system of internal improvements; and a board of 
commissioners of public works, composed of one member 
from each judicial district — few of whom had ever seen a 
railroad or canal — to supe'rintend construction of ithe 
proposed works. "And, as a crowning act of folly, it was 
pro\aded that the work should commence simultaneously 

* A few years ago Mr. A. S. Edwards, of Spring-field, son of Hon. 
Ninian "W. Edwards, one of the lengthy nine, when looking over some 
old papers of his father's, found the following itemized account: 

Vandalia, 111., Feb. 28th, 1837. 

Col. Dawson To E. Capps Dr. 

To 81 bottles Champaigne at $2 each $162 00 

" Drinks 6 00 

" 32 lbs. Almonds 8 00 

" 14 lbs. Raisins 10 00 

" Cigars 10 00 

" Oysters 10 00 

" Apples 3 00 

" Eatables 12 00 

" Breakage 2 00 

" Sundries 50 



Rec'd pay of N. W. Edwards, March 4th, $223 50 

E. Capps. 

"Uncle" Ebenezer Capps kept a public house in Vandalia for 
several years, and was generally known by all politicians of Illinois 
of that era. He moved to Springfield along with the State capitol, 
and resided there until his death. 



193 

on all the roads at each end, and from the crossing of 
all the rivers."* 

There had been no surveys or estimates made of the 
speciiied railroads; no one knew where the material for 
their construction could be obtained, or what it would 
cost ; or where the money to pay for it could be secured. In 
that condition of bewildering uncertainty the Legislature 
adjourned on the 6tli of March, 1837. 

* Ford's History of Illinois, p. 184. 



-13 



CHAPTER X. 

Mr. Snyder discovers James Shields — His carriage stalls in the 
Okaw sloughs, and he suffers in consequence — Gov. Reynolds 
embarks in Railroad building — Condition of Illinois in 1837 — Mr. 
Snyder goes to Washington, visiting ex-Senator Thomas on the 
way — Also visits Connellsville, Pa., the place of his birth — His 
health improved for a short time — The Alton Riots and death 
of Lovejoy — Mr. Snyder in Congress. 

All through the winter of 1836-7 Mr. Snyder's health 
was fairlv oood. He did not visit Vandalia while the 
Legislature was in session, but remained at his home and 
office, finding ample employment there in the management 
of his private affairs. He was necessarily deeply interested 
in the proceedings of the Legislature, of which he was 
kept as closely informed as possible by the tri-weekly mail 
service over the Avretched roads of southern Illinois. He 
was at first inclined to favor the plan of internal improve- 
ments by the State, but on a very limited scale as an 
experiment. The magnitude and extent of improvements 
authorized \>y^ the Legislature, in profound ignorance of 
every detail of their construction and cost; ahd the enor- 
mous State debt they would create, convinced him the 
srtjheme was impracticable and altogether an egregious mis- 
take. 

He was especially opposed to inflating, at the expense of 
the State 's credit, the capital stock of the banks ; but fa- 
vored removal of the State capitol to Springfield. 

Early in 1837, Mr. Snyder, with James ]\Iitchell, D. B. 
Reel, Charles Sargent and Timothy Hinckley, formed a 
joint stock company and purchased the large brix?k steam 
mill, built in Belleville, in 1832, by Richard Rapier, who 
was financially embarrassed, and gave it up to his creditors. 
Mr. Hinckley was installed as manager of the mill, and, 
in a few years bought all the stock and was the sole pro- 
prietor. In the unpubilshed personal memoirs of Gov. 
Koerner, he says: In 1836 "I attended the fall sessions 



195 

of court diligently. In one or two counties Mr. Snyder 
was able to be with me. We were defending a very inter- 
esting case of murder in Clinton county, and here it was 
that I made my first acquaintance with James Shields who 
was also employed on the defense. Mr. Snyder, Avhen 
canvassing the district for Congress that year, came across 
him and formed at once a high opinion of his ability; so 
that when in the fall he defended Gannett, being himself 
still unable to exert himself much, invited him (Shields) 
to assist us. I opened the case, Shields examined the wit- 
nesses with skill, Snyder made a brief, but very impres- 
sive speech. It was a tolerably bad case ; but we succeeded 
in clearing our client, a farmer living where Aviston now 
stands. As Mr. Snvder had soon to leave for Washington 
City to attend the special session of Congress in 1837, and 
as his health was such as to forbid an active practice at 
the bar, at least for some years, he proposed in the spring 
of that year to retire from practice. Shields in the mean- 
time had been elected a member of the Legislature from 
Randolph County, to fill a vacancy at the special session 
of the Legislature, and had just returned from the seat, 
of government. Mr. Snyder was desirous of having Shields 
at Belleville, and suggested to both of us to go into part- 
nership. In June we formed a business connection, and 
we succeeded very well ; but had to dissolve it in 1841^ 
Shields having been elected Auditor of State by the Legis- 
lature, Avhich made it necessary for him to reside at 
Springfield." When Gen'l Shields surrendered the Audi- 
tor's office to William L. D. Ewing, in March, 1843, he- 
resumed his residence at Belleville, and was a citizen of 
that place until, after the expiration of his term in the 
U. S. Senate, in 1855, he removed to Minnesota. 

An accident occurred to Mr. Snyder in the early days: 
of March, 1837, trivial in itself, but resulting in very ser- 
ious consequences to him, as time proved. In company 
with Mr. Koerner, he had gone to Nashville, county seat 
of Washington county, to attend the spring term of court 



196 

there. Of what transpired on their return, Mr. Koerner 
gives, in his personal Memoirs , written more than half a 
century later, the following graphic account, but, by a 
curious lapse of memory, he places the incident in 1841, 
instead of 1837, "The rivers were very high, and the Okaw 
(Kaskaskia) river we had to cross was out of its banks; 
had overflowed a great part of the bottom, and some 
sloughs (dead arms of the river) Avere not fordable. In 
consequence of that we took a round about road by Fayette- 
ville to reach Nashville. After the court was over we 
started for home, and Mr. Snyder proposed to take the 
direct route, it being some ten miles nearer, having ascer- 
tained, as he said, that the river had fallen, and that the 
big slough was fordable. In fact, the stage to ShaAvnee- 
town had come through the night before we started. We 
were in a top-barouche drawn by two stout horses. A 
young lawyer by the name of Case, having business in 
Belleville, was taken in by us. I drove. It was a bright, 
but quite cold and frosty morning (first week in March) 
and we went on very well. When reaching the slough, 
which was there about one hundred and fifty yards vdde, 
I stopped, discovering that it was what is called 'swim- 
ming.' But Mr. Snyder insisted, inasmuch as the stage 
had come through, Ave could risk it. I remonstrated, re- 
marking that Avliile I had seen the fresh tracks of the stage 
all along, there had been none for the last mile or so. Well, 
I drove in ; when about half way the horscis lost their foot- 
ing, Avould not draw any more and were in the water up 
to their necks, struggling and one horse throwing his neck 
and head over the neck of the other. Our first idea was 
to relieve the horses. I got out on the pole trying to cut 
the collar straps and the traces; but I broke the blades 
of all three pocket knives we had, and did not succeed. I 
Avas in the water up to my armpits. Mr. Snyder and Case 
stood on the seats of the carriage. The A\x^ather Avas icy 
cold, in fact there Avas some thin ice on the slough. jMr. 
Snyder remarked : 



197 



( i 



If we don't get out soon we will be stiffened up so much 
that we Avill not be able to swim." We were wrapped up 
in great coats, and had heavy boots on. Case jumped out 
first and got on the shore without trouble. In fact the 
distance he was swimming was not more than about twenty 
yards. Mr. Snyder got out next, and being very tall, had 
to swim but a short distance. I was the last. I always 
had been a very indifferent swimmer and never had swam 
wdth clothes on. But I not only got through, but having 
lost my hat in jumping out, I swam back and got it. When 
I made the plunge I was half inclined to think that I 
could not make the trip, but Case being a very fine swim- 
mer, I presumed that he would come to my rescue. The 
moment we had all got out, the^ horses, while swimming a 
little piece, palled the carriage over. There were men on 
the other side, who took hold of the horses and carriage, 
and taking them further down the slough where it was 
fordable, brought the carriage back to us. There was no 
house within a mile. The road was very rough, and the 
horses could only walk. Feeling very cold I left the car- 
riage, ran as fast as I could, and got to a log cabin. The 
husband being out hunting, I asked the Avoman for trousers 
and a shirt, which she very willingly furnished. At a 
rousing fire, I put on a butter-nut suit, and when my 
friends arrived I felt already quite comfortable. Mr. 
Snyder pulled cff his coat and vest and laid down in a bed 
well covered up. I could not persuade him to put off 
his shirt and underclothing. My clothes having dried 
very quickly I gave the shirt and trousers of our back- 
wood host, who had come home, to Case. The good woman 
made us some very strong coffee, baked corn bread and 
broiled us slices of bacon. So we fared pretty well. In 
a couple of hours we left ; but could not reach home that- 
night. Our host explained the matter to us. The stage 
had passed on this direct route the night before ; but had 
forded the slough about half a mile below to where the road 
goes ordinarily through it, driving through the woods; the 



198 

water below being several feet lower than above. The only 
damage I suffered was the spoiling of two law books which 
were in my saddle bags, and the loss of a deck of cards 
with which we had played a game of whist the night before. 
I di4 not even catch cold. But Mr. Snyder took a severe 
cold and, in fact, his disease ever since that accident took 
a downward course." 

In 1837, Illinois was aroused to new life, and stirred 
with a new spirit of progress and activity. Every interest 
and industry received new animation from the State's 
splendid prospects and promising future. 

The Legislature seemed to have suddenly discovered 
a new power in the State 's credit possessing the necromancy 
of Aladdin's lamp, with the genii of wealth and prosperity 
for its slave. Its new banks with vast capital, its great 
lines of railroads under contract, with completion of the 
Illinois and Michigan canal assured, and improvement of 
navigation of its rivers commenced, the State was appar- 
ently marching on to its high destiny with giant strides. Its 
seventy counties were all fast gaining population, and 
those in the northern portion particularly, were speedily 
filling up with sturdy settlers crowding through Chicago, 
a city already recognized as the metropolis of the north- 
west. 

Speculation, for some time at fever height, became a 
delirium. More new towns Avere laid out; better houses 
and barns were built; carriages, pianos and fine furniture 
were imported from the east, and everything saleable ap- 
preciated in price. Removing the State capitol to Spring- 
field gave that muddy village magnified importance, though 
it depressed Vandalia; and Alton only needed completion 
of the canal and the three great trunk-line railroads ter- 
minating there to make it equal to Chicago, and a success- 
ful rival to St. Louis. 

Gov. Reynolds, temporarily out of office, was seized with 
the prevailing railroad mania. Associating with himself 
a few men of means in a joint stock company, they built a 



199 

railroad from the bluffs, in St. Clair County, across the 
American Bottom, to the river bank opposite St. Louis, for 
transportation of coal to that city. The road was six miles 
in length, and at the foot of the bluff, crossed a lake, 2,000 
feet wide, on a rickety bridge supported by piles driven 
down into the mud. The road was commenced and fin- 
ished in 1837. In structure it was a crude and cheap 
affair ; but yet it was a railroad, having longitudinal wood- 
en rails, six by eight inches square, without iron, for the 
car wheels to run on. The motive power was horses. 

It was the first railroad constructed and put in operation 
in Illinois, and indeed in the Mississippi valley. But it 
came prematurely. From a combination of causes it proved 
a failure, and was sold to another company at a ruinous 
loss— the Governor alone losing about $17,000. The new 
company rebuilt the track, spiked strap iron on the rails, 
and substituted a primitive locomotive for the horse-power; 
but still it could not be made to pay, and in a few years 
was abandoned. The ties and rails were sold, or carried 
away by adjacent settlers in the Bottom ; the culverts rotted 
and fell in, and in a short time every trace of that pioneer 
railroad disappeared, excepting the long double row of 
oak piles that stretched across the lake. Divested of their 
superstructure they stood there, resisting the destructive 
agencies of water and weather, for many years, melancholy 
reminders of a blasted enterprise that in its failure pres- 
aged the coming of a new and grand era for Illinois. 

The sanguine expectations of the public inspired by 
the magnificent projects of the Legislature, received a 
sudden shock by an occurrence, discouraging as unexpected, 
a harbinger of future trouble, that proved ultimately a seri- 
ous detriment to every business and industrial interest in 
the State. The banks all over the country suspended specie 
payment, forcing the Illinois banks to suspend also. As 
a precautionary safeguard, the law establishing the Illinois 
banks stipulated that their suspension of specie payments 
for more than sixty consecutive days, if not further pro- 



200 

longed by the Legislature, would work forfeiture of their 
charters and force them into liquidation. As there was 
not the remotest probability— hardly a possibility— of their 
resumption of specie payment within the time specified the 
Governor issued a proclamation for the Legislature to meet 
in extra session on the 10th day of July, 1837, to legalize 
the failure of the banks to redeem their obligations in coin. 

On that date the General Assembly convened at Vandalia 
in response to the Executive's call. In his message to them, 
Gov. Duncan advised repeal of the internal improvement 
laws enacted by them at the last session, adding the sound 
advice that, "the disasters which have already fallen upon 
the commercial world suggest the necessity of escaping the 
perils of a system which can only be fraught with evil.'^ 
But no heed was paid to the Whig Governor's wise recom- 
mendation. The bank failures received full legislative sanc- 
tion ; but the internal improvement folly was not repealed, 
and, after a session of eleven days, the Legislature ad- 
journed. 

The first earth removed in beginning the gigantic system 
of railroads, was in May, 1837, on that part of the "North- 
ern Cross" road from Meredosia to Jacksonville; and that 
was the fir?;t section of it finished two years later. The 
Board of Fund Commissioners, Thomas Mathers, ]\L ]\L 
Rawlings and Charles Oakley, proceeded to New York City 
after adjournment of the special session, in July, to sell 
State bonds. They found the credit of Illinois to be rated 
as first-class, and, notwithstanding recent bank suspension 
and consequent depression of the money market, they suc- 
ceeded, in a short time, in selling 4,869 $1,000 bonds at 
par, 100 at a premium of 5 per cent, 200 at 21/2 per cent 
and 1,216 at '^ per cent above par. Subsequently more 
bonds were sold, realizing for the State, altogether, $5,668,- 
000. The Board of Public Works elected by the Legislature 
comprised William Kinney, Murray McConnell, John Dix- 
on, Milton K. Alexander, Ebenezer Peck, Joel Wright and 
Elijah Willard. Upon organization of the Board, William 



201 

Kinney was elected its President. Each member was Di- 
rector of Construction in his district, and as fast as surveys 
were made, he contracted for construction of sections sur- 
veyed. 

Shortly after the August election Mr. Snyder reluctant- 
ly set aside his business engagements, and leaving Messrs. 
Koerner and Shields in charge of his law office, bid adieu 
to his family and friends, and took his departure for the 
national capitol. He traveled, by stage, to Vincennes, 
thence, over the old National road, to Columbus, Ohio, and 
from there to Mt. Vernon, in Knox county, to visit his early 
and much esteemed friend, ex-Senator Jesse B. Thomas. 
Calling on the way at the village where he was employed 
for a short time, twenty years before, in Mr. McFarland's 
store, he met a few of his former acquaintances there who 
were overjoyed to see him. Leaving Mt. Vernon, he pro- 
ceeded to Pittsburg, there by boat up the Monongahela 
River to Brownsville, and on, by stage, to Uniontown; 
thence to Connellsville, the place of his birth. That was his 
first visit to the home of his bovhood since he left it, in the 
spring of 1817, afoot and alone, to seek his fortunes in 
the boundless west. 

There can be no doubt of the sentiment of pride and 
self satisfaction animating him when he returned to the 
village a wealthy and prominent lawyer, honored by his 
neighbors for six years with a seat in the Senate of his 
adopted State, and then on his way to represent them in 
the national Congress. Plis father and mother had some 
years before gone to their final rest. His brother and sis- 
ter were delighted to see him; and the reception accorded 
him, by companions of his youthful days and old friends 
of his parents, who felt the distinction he had gained some- 
how reflected honor upon their town and community, was 
a touching ovation that amply compensated him for many 
of his early hardships. From far and near the people came 
to greet him and press upon him the hospitalities of their 
homes, and express their glad appreciation of his success. 



202 

A week passed pleasantly in renewing old acquaintances, 
and visiting scenes of his youthful struggles with poverty, 
and feasting with friends, when he proceeded by stage, by 
way of Cumberland, Md., to AA^ashington City. His healih 
improved from the time he left home, and Avhen his des- 
tination Avas reached he felt so much restored that he- 
fancied — and hoped — he had overcome the terrible disease 
with which he was heroically contending. 

It was late in the autumn of 1837 Avhen the disgraceful 
riots occurred at Alton resulting in the deaths of Lyman 
Bishop and the Rev. Elijah P. Love joy. To the early set- 
tlers of Illinois, generally from the southern States, the 
"Yankees," or natives of New England, were particularly 
odious. Their mutual dislike may have been hereditary, 
originating in the civil wars of England, two centuries 
before, in the times of Charles 1st, and transferred to Amer- 
ica when the descendants of the Cavaliers settled at James- 
town, in Virginia, and those of the Round Heads, or Puri- 
tans, on the bleak shores of Massachusetts. The contempt 
for "the race of clock peddlers and manufacturers of 
wooden nutmegs" entertained by many of the southern- 
born Illnoisans, was not mitigated by the fact that Yankees 
who came west — all but the office seekers— were, as a rule, 
blatant advocates of the abolition of slavery. 

Lovejoy was a native of Maine, a typical Yankee, a Pres- 
byterian preacher and a fanatical Abolitionist. Coming 
west he located in St. Louis, in a slaveholding State, where 
society Avas dominated by pro-slavery sentiment. As an 
aid to his exalted mission of preaching the gospel, he es- 
tablished there a paper, ostensibly the organ of his church, 
and from its beginning a virulent exponent of Abolitionism. 
For a time but little attention was paid to him ; but his 
incessant malignant denunciation of slavery and slave- 
holders incensed the people of St. Louis to such uncontrol- 
able fury that they destroyed his press and drove him 
away. 

He then went to Alton with another press, to continue 



203 

his Abolition crusade there; but the same pro-slavery ele- 
ment, in the ascendency there, unwilling to be annoyed by 
him, seized his printing outfit and threw it into the river. 
Calling the citizens of Alton together, he stated that his 
intention was to publish a religious paper, solemnly prom- 
ising to exclude from its columns all discussion of irritat- 
ing political questions. With that understanding mom^y 
\^ as contributed and another press was purchased for him. 

For awhile cill went well, and his paper was creditably 
conducted in the interests of his church. But, influenced 
by Rev. Thomas K. Beecher, Rev. IMr. Hurlbut, Rev. Mr. 
Graves, and other New Englanders equally fanatical in the 
cause of Abolitionism, and more aggressive and far abler 
than himself, he filled the pages of his papers with fiery 
attacks upon the institution of slavery and unstinted abuse 
of all who dared to disagree with him. 

Liberty of speech and of the press are the most precious 
boons of our free and enlightened gov^ernment ; but even 
those blessings may be abused beyond the point of toler- 
ance—as the sympathizers with the south in northern States 
during the civil war discovered, and as has since been for- 
cibly impressed upon Anarchists, Socialists and ]\Iormons 
in certain localities. The reformer guided by reason and 
justice may be respected, and even admired, by those unaOle 
to accept his doctrines; but the virulent agitator, though 
right in principle, moved by blind fanaticism, or insam 
prejudice, can only be regarded as a social pest. By his ag- 
gravating, uncalled for public abuse and personal antagon^ 
ism, in a non-slaveholding community, Love joy, though sin- 
cerely conscientious in his course, made himself a pestifer- 
ous nuisance. To rid themselves of that mischevious source 
of social and political discord, an excited mob collected and 
again threw his press and type into the river. The mui» 
spirit of the people of Alton was fully aroused, and au 
classes were intensely excited. Love joy and his friends 
ordered another press, and organized themselves into a well 
armed company to defend and maintain its liberty. They 



204 

marched into church under arms on the Sabbath to defend 
their liberty of speech. The citizens opposed to the Aboli- 
tion party were e([ually determined that the nuisance should 
be permanently abated. 

In that tension of feeling the fourth Abolition press ar- 
rived on the evening of November 6th, and was stored in 
the warehouse of Godfrey, Gilman & Co., near the river. 
Love joy and Jiis adherents, armed and equipped for trou- 
ble, took their position in the warehouse to protect their 
property. The weather Avas mild and the night clear and 
pleasant. 

The mob, apprised that the press had arrived, gathered 
soon after dark at the warehouse^ Their demand for the 
press was justly and defiantly refused. Then a charge Avas 
made on the warehouse to carry it by storm, when an 
upper window was raised and a shot fired— by Lovejoy, it 
was said bv those Avith him — and a bvstander named Lyman 
Bishop, a young man taking no part in the mob's action, 
fell mortally Avounded and expired in a few minutes. The 
murder of Bishop infuriated the mob, and some one sug- 
gested burning the Avarehouse ; and soon a blazing ball of 
cotton saturated AAdth turpentine Avas throAA^n upon the 
roof. Others placed a ladder against the end of the build- 
ing having no windoAvs or doors in it, and a citizen Avith 
cooler judgment than the others engaged there in the Avork 
of destruction, Avent up the ladder Avith a bucket of Avater 
and extinguished the fire. While descending the ladder, 
LoA^ejoy came out from a front door and deliberately fired 
at him, and dodged back into the house. His aim, hoAvever, 
Avas faulty, and the man AA^as uninjured. Several shots Avere 
then exchanged by the mob and those in the second story, 
Avithout effect. At that stage one of the mob ascended the 
ladder and again set the roof on fire, A\dien Ijovejoy and a 
companion again emerged from the same door and fired at 
the man on the ladder and missed him. Before thev could 
re-enter the Avarehouse they were fired upon by several of 
the mob, and Lovejoy fell, exclaiming, "My God! I am 



205 

shot," and in a few minutes gained the martyr's crown. 
The man with him was wounded in the leg. The death of 
Lovejoy ended the siege. The fire on the roof was extin- 
guished. The defenders of the press surrendered it to the 
frenzied mob, and it quickly followed the others into the 
river. Both parties then dispersed and the furious excite- 
ment soon subsided. Prosecutions were instituted in the 
courts, but no one was convicted. 

There, of course, can be no justification of the lawlessness 
of the St. Louis and Alton mobs that destroyed Lovejoy 's 
property and abridged the constitutional liberty in defense 
of which he sacrificed his life. 

Scarcely seven years later, at Carthage, in Hancock 
County, occurred another tragedy far more atrocious, and 
with less paliation, than that at Alton. There the soil of 
Illinois was again stained with the martyr's blood sacri- 
ficed to conscientious convictions, by the cowardly assassin- 
ation, on June 27th, 1844, of Joseph and Hiram Smith, uut 
armed, defenseless prisoners in legal custody, by those to 
whom their protection had been entrusted by the Governor 
of the State. 

About that time Catholic churches were burned and 
priests mobbed by the "Know Nothings" in our enlightened 
eastern States; and on the threshold of the twentieth cen- 
tury Mormon churches were destroyed and Mormon elders 
mobbed in certain sections of our country. Mob violence 
attempting to suppress obnoxious dogmas— or unpalatable 
truth— Avill probably continue to be exerted, under circum- 
stances of great provocation, until the moral forces of civil- 
ization shall have eradicated the remaining savage instincts 
of man's brutal origin. 

Lovejoy, like John Brown, was the victim of his own 
ill-judged zeal in attempting to force a people to sur- 
render their life-long and most tenacious prejudices. A 
stately monument has been erected at Alton to commem- 
orate his martyrdom; but it has not erased from the fair 



206 

page of our State's history 'Jie reproachful blot of his vio- 
lent death and its attendant circumstances. 

Reviewing that lamentable occurrence at Alton in the 
light of stupendous events since transpired in our State and 
country, interesting, though fruitless, speculation is sug-' 
gested relative to the probable material results to Alton, 
had its people then been in sympathy with Love joy and his 
anti-slavery crusade. At that time Alton was in active com- 
petition Avith St. Louis for commercial control of the west. 
It had the State prison, and monopolized the output of 
the Galena lead mines. Its extensive trade and business 
was in expectancy of large increase upon completion of 
the canal, and contemplated lines of railroads terminating 
there. Its position was advantageous for commanding traf- 
fic on the Illinois and Missouri Rivers, and also that of 
the upper Mississippi. 

St. Louis, its rival, in a slave State, was a stronghold 
of the slavery propaganda. In the then increasing hos- 
tility to the institution of slavery in the northern States, 
had Alton, in a free State, enlisted in the cause of Abolition- 
ism with spirit and unanimity, New England capital, energy 
and enterprise would very probably have concentrated there 
in force sufficient to turn the balance in its favor. But 
seven- tenths of the citizens of Alton were as radical in 
their pro-slavery proclivities as were those of St. Louis. The 
Lovejoy riots, so unmistakably expressing the public senti- 
ment of Alton on the subject of slavery, repelled the tide 
of Yankee immigration, with its push and capital, setting 
strongly to that place, and threw it back upon Chicago, 
where the metropolis it created stands as one of the world 's 
wonders. And Alton, enamored of a hideous idol, lost its 
opportunity and was left far behind. 

The Twenty-fifth Congress was convened in extra session 
on the 4th of September, 1837. James K. Polk, of Tennes- 
see, Avas elected to preside over the House of Represen- 
tatives as Speaker, and Hugh A. Garland, of Virginia, was 
chosen for Clerk. Mr. Snyder was assigned to the same 



207 

committees as were his predecessors, Slade and Reynolds, 
on Roads and Canals and Postal Affairs. The Illinois 
delegation in the Twenty-fifth Congress were John M. Rob- 
inson and Richard M. Young, Senators, and Adam W. Sny- 
der, Zadok Casey and AVilliam L. May, Representatives. 
The most noted of Senators in that Congress were Daniel 
AYebster, Henry Clay, John J. Crittenden, Col. Yell, Frank- 
lin Pierce, William C. Preston, James Buchanan, John C. 
Calhoun, Silas Wright, Thomas Bayard, Thomas IT. Ben- 
ton, William C. Rives, AYilliam R. King and William Allen. 
In the House were Henry A. AVise, John M. Mason, John 
Quincy Adams, INIillard Fillmore, Caleb Cushing, Thomas 
Cor^vin, John Bell, Waddy Thompson, R. Barnwell Rhett, 
R. ]\I. T. Hunter, GenT Prentiss and James Harlan. 

No national or international questions of unusual import- 
ance were presented to that Congress for its consideration. 
Our country was at peace with all the world— excepting 
the* Seminole Indians of Florida. The great victory won 
by the Texans at the battle of San Jacinto, fought on the 
21st of April, 1837, was followed by the establishment of 
the Republic of Texas, symbolized by its flag with one 
lone star; and its independence was promptly recognized 
bv our srovernment. Its annexation to the United States, 
then a foregone conclusion, was, however, not consummated 
until 1845, 

Mr." Snyder's first speech in Congress, quite brief, but 
to the point, was delivered, on the 16th of October, in com- 
mittee of the whole, when the bill authorizing the issue of 
$10,000,000 of treasury notes for maintenance of the gov- 
ernment—the object for which the special session was called 
— was under consideration. 

So long as the condition of his health permitted him to 
occupy his seat in the House, Mr. Snyder was a very at- 
tentive and industrious member. He participated actively 
in all the business, and several of the debates, of the special 
session, and by resolutions, and otherwise, exerted himself 



208 

to comply with the many requisitions upon him by his 
State and constituents, for aid and information. 

In the regular session, on Dec. 6th, he suggested the 
repeal of so much of the act postponing until the 1st of 
January, 1839, "payment of the fourth installment of 
deposits with the States, ' ' and ' ' that provision be made for 
immediate payment of the same." His object — similar to 
that of many other measures proposed at that session— 
was to relieve the distressing stringency of money matters 
occasioned by suspension of the National bank and that of 
the greater number of all the banks of issue in the coun- 
try. On Dec. 13th, Hon. John Quincy Adanxs, of Massa- 
chusetts, "proceeded to consideration of the motion made 
by himself on yesterday to refer certain memorials and 
petitions against the annexation of Texas to a select com- 
mittee. ' ' Mr. Adams addressed the House at length in sup- 
port of his motion, and "in the course of his speech was 
several times called to order by the Chair, and by Messrs. 
Petrikin, Snyder and Rhett. Mr. Snyder called the gen- 
tleman from Massachusetts to order for accusing the 
citizens of Alton, in Illinois, of being guilty of mur- 
der and arson, in his reference to the recent death 
of Lovejoy. " Mr. Snyder demanded of the Speaker 
if he would be permitted to answer the remarks of 
Mr. Adams arraigning and aspersing the character of 
his constituents of Alton by charging them with the 
crimes of arson and murder? If that permission would 
be granted him he would give his consent for the gentle- 
man to proceed; but, if not, he was, in justice to his con- 
stituents, compelled to call him to order. Mr. Adams, 
"at this stage, asked leave of the House to proceed, and 
demanded the yeas and nays;" but before the vote was 
taken Mr. Adams withdrew his remarks in reference to the 
Lovejoy riots, and promised not to refer to that subject 
again, whereupon Mr. Snyder withdrew his call to order. 

On Dec. 18th, Mr. Snvder moved for establishintr a sur- 
veyor-general's office in the State of Illinois. Jan. 1st, 



209 

1838, on motion of Mr. Snyder, the memorials and resolu- 
tions of the Legislature of Illinois heretofore presented to 
the House on the subject of the location and construction 
of the Cumberland road through Illinois were referred to 
his committee, that on Roads and Canals. Jan. 28th, on 
motion of Mr. Snyder, it was "Ilesolved, That the Commit- 
tee on Commerce be instructed to enquire into the expe- 
diency of creating ports of entry and delivery at Chicago, 
Alton and Cairo, in the Slate of Illinois." On the same 
day, Mr. Snjxler presented the memorial of 359 citizens 
of St. Clair County, in the State of Illinois, "praying that 
Congress may adopt some measure by which all connection 
between banks and the general government may be totally 
dissolved.'^ In presenting that memorial "Mr. Snyder said 
he was personally acquainted ^vith almost every person 
w^hose name was appended to that paper ; they were highly 
respectable and influential men. He recognized among 
them the names of the judges of the county court and 
their clerk; the sheriff of the county, two lawyers, eight 
or ten justices of the peace, one member and one ex-mem- 
ber of the Legislature, with many others of the most prom- 
inent men of the county. Neither could he (Mr. Snyder) 
omit to mention the name of Hon. John Reynolds, his dis- 
tinguished predecessor, doubtless favorably known to many 
gentlemen of the House, who had also placed his name on 
this hard money memorial. ]\Ir. Snyder said he was thus 
particular in stating the number and character of the mem- 
orialists and their object, because he had noticed a statement 
in the Vandalia Register, printed in Illinois, saying that a 
paper had been transmitted to him (Mr. Snyder), one of 
the Representatives in Congress, from St. Clair County, 
signed by eight hundred voters, being a majority of the 
legal voters of that county, requesting him (Mr. Snyder) 
to vote for the divorce bill.* This article, Mr. Snyder said, 
was going the rounds of the western papers, and he thought 
it his duty to correct the misrepresentation : the more so, 

* "Divorce" of the government from the banks. 

— 14 



210 

because that print had, on other occasions, been guilty of 
similar conduct towards him. Mr. Snyder moved that the 
memorial be referred to the Committee of Ways and Means, 
and that it be printed. ' '* 

Mr. Snyder presented the papers of William B. Livesly, 
of Washington County, in the State of Illinois, asking that 
he may be permitted to relocate eighty acres of land entered 
by mistake. Also, the petition of Peter Samuel Jaccord, 
of Johnson County, in the State of Illinois, on the same 
subject ; both of which he moved to refer to the Committee 
on Public Lands. Also the petition of George Kinder, 
Jubilee Posey and Joel AATiiteside , of Madison County, to 
authorize the Receiver of Public IMoneys at Edwardsville, 
Illinois, to refund them the amount of money and interest 
which they paid over and above the amount of land pur- 
chased by them, owing to a mistake in the land office books 
of the actual number of acres contained in the respective 
tracts; which was also referred to the Committee on Pub- 
lie Lands. On March 13th, 1838, Mr. Chamberleng, of 
NcAV York, from the Committee of Ways and IMeans, sub- 
mitted an additional item of ^20,000 for completion of the 
public building at the seat of government of Wisconsin 
Territory, under the Act of Congress of 1836. To this Mr. 
Bell objected. Mr. Snyder made another objection to the 
construction of a permanent building there, namely, that 
the territory would probably soon be divided, and the pres- 
ent location of the seat of government would then be re- 
moved, as it would fall on, or near, one side of those 
divisions. On March 16th, Mr. Snyder moved that the Com- 
mittee on Pubilc Lands be instructed to prepare a bill for 
an Act granting to each soldier who serveci in the cam- 
paign against the Indians in the Northwestern Territory, 
betAveen the years 1781 and 1796, a bounty of 320 acres 
of land to be located on any surveyed land belonging to 
the general government not disposed of. Mr. Snyder also 
moved to instruct the Committee on Commerce to prepare 

* House Journal of 25th Congress. 



211 

a bill providing for repeal of the law authorizing the pay- 
ment of debentures to vessels engaged in the fishing trade. 
He then presented the petition of Robert Clark, of Ran- 
dolph County, in the State of Illinois, praying Congress 
to authorize him to locate land in Illinois or Missouri in 
lieu of Warrant No. 2483 issued the 13th of February, 1815, 
from the War Department, and lost in transmission by 
mail. Referred to the Committee on Public Lands. 

March 22d, i\lr. Snyder, from the Committee on Roads 
and Canals, reported a bill providing for the survey and 
construction of the National Road from Vandalia in the 
State^ of Illinois, to Jefferson City, in the State of Mis- 
souri, which was read tAvice, and committed to the Commit- 
tee of the Whole on the State of the Union, and ordered to 
be printed. March 24th Mr. Snyder presented the petitions 
of Isaac Miller and Philip Canter, of Union County, in 
Illinois, praying Congress to permit them to relocate two 
tracts of land entered by mistake. "March 30th, the 
House went into Committee of the whole, ]Mr. Snyder 
in the Chair, to consider the bill to authorize the Secretary 
of the Treasury to correct a mistake in the payment of a 
sum of money awarded to certain parties. After consider- 
ation of said bill, the Committee rose, and ]\Ir. Snyder 
reported that the Committee of the AA^hole recommended 
passage of the bill; whereupon it was read a third time 
and passed." Mr. Snyder moved that the Committee on 
Naval Affairs be instructed to provide by law for the ap- 
pointment of midshipmen in the Navy so that an equal 
number may be chosen from each Congressional District iu 
the United States. 

May 21st, Mr. Snyder presented a memorial from William 
C. Greenup, President of the Board of Managers organized 
for the purpose of draining the lakes and ponds of the 
American Bottom, in the State of Illinois, praying Con- 
gress to grant the unsold lands in said American Bottom 
to aid the Board in said improvements. Referred to Com- 
mittee on Public Lands. ]\Ir. Snyder also presented a 



212 

memorial from the citizens of Greenville, in Bond County, 
Illinois, praying Congress to cause the National Road, from 
Vandalia to the Mississippi River, to be located through 
said town. Referred to the Committee on Roads and 
Canals. On May 28th, Mr. Snyder offered the following 
resolution, which was considered, but not adopted: 

'' Resolved, That the Committee on Military Affairs be 
instructed to enquire into the expediency of abolishing the 
Military Academy at West Point." The animus of Mr. 
Snyder's resolution, he explained, was to escape the abuse 
of the appointing power in selection of cadets, then vested 
in the President and Secretary of AVar. It was charged, 
he said, that those appointments were governed by political 
interests and x)ersonal favoritism, with the result that the 
Academy was fiiled with sons of eastern capitalists, wealthy 
and influential southerners, c;nd army officers of high rank, 
to the exclusion of western boys, poor, but of equal, if not 
of superior,, merit. It is passing strange that ]\Ir. Snyder 
did not include the appointment of cadets to the IMilitary 
Academy in his proposition, of March 30th, to change 
the mode of selecting cadets to the Naval Academv at An- 
napolis, by alloting them equally to the Congressional Dis- 
tricts, as was a few years later adopted. 

June 7th. The Preemption bill being considered, ]\Ir. 
Snyder said he hoped the amendment offered by the gen- 
tleman from Ohio (Mr. Goode) would not prevail. It pro- 
posed to grant certain rights to the State of Ohio, to the 
exclusion of individuals. ''The present bill is one," said 
he, "extending to settlers on public lands the right of pre- 
emption to one quarter section of land. Its principles are 
general and equitable ; its abject is to protect the labor of 
the poor man from the rapacity of the wealthy speculator. 
The amendment of the gentleman, if adopted, will embar- 
rass the progress and passage of the bill. I deny that it 
is consonant with the principles of the measure under con- 
sideration. This bill extends to settlers on public lands 
protection and a guarantee for their labor; and, on the 



213 

other hand, the proposition of the gentlelnan from Ohio 
would engross the most valuable lands exclusively for the 
State of Ohio, and deny to the settlers the right of pre- 
emption on that part of the domain. I, for one, cannot 
consent that this bill shall be so encumbered. If the amend- 
ment offered by the gentleman from Ohio has merit I will 
vote for it as a separate and distinct measure. There has 
been abundant time during all this long session to pro- 
pose that measure ; there is yet time. I hope the friends 
of a pre-emption act will join me in voting down this 
amendment, in order that this important bill, for the relief 
of a most meritorious class of citizens, will stand on its 
own merits, and speedily meet the favorable action of this 
House. AVhen the provisions of this bill come up for dis- 
cussion, I shall avail myself of the occasion to present my 
views more fully on the subject." 

On June 11th, Mr. Snyder moved that the Committee 
on Post Office and Postroads be instructed to report a bill 
to establish a mail route from Jonesborough, in Union Coun- 
ty, via AVhittaker's Landing, the mouth of Big Muddy and 
Breeseville, to Liberty; and also a mailroute from Clarks- 
ville, in Pike County to Phillips' Ferry on the Illinois 
River, in Illinois. June 14th, the Pre-emption bill was 
discussed in Committee of the Whole, when ]\Ir. Snyder 
offered the following proviso: "Provided^ however, that 
no person who has settled, occupied or cultivated any por- 
tion of such ((uarter section, under a previous settler, and 
by his permission, shall be allowed to avail himself of any 
such division oi a quarter section." This, put to the House, 
was not acceded to. Mr. Lincoln, of Massachusetts, then 
moved to amend by "inserting in the 26th line, after the 
words 'United States,' and upon the third proviso in said 
bill, the following words, 'nor shall the benefit of this Act 
extend to any person who lias before availed himself of a 
preemption right to entry of the public lands, and ac- 
quired a title thereto by reason of such entry." "Mr. 
Snyder opposed this motion, and in a speech of an hour's 



214 

duration went into a variety of details showing how inju- 
riously it would operate upon a meritorious class of citi- 
zens.*' June 15th, "Mr. Snj^der asked and obtained leave 
to make a statement in relation to an article which ap- 
peared in the Madisonian of Thursday last. Mr. S. then 
read the following extract from the paper: 'At the extra 
session there was not to be found in the whole House any 
more decided opponents of Ihe scheme (sub-treasury) than 
every representative from the State of Illinois. Have the 
opinions of the people of that State changed since in favor 
of the scheme? On the contrary, every manifestation of 
their opinion shows most clearly that an overwhelming 
majority of the people of that State are decidedly, op- 
posed, and that any one of her representatives who gives 
his support to it does so in direct opposition to their will. 
Then why this change on the part of the representative in 
relation to this all-absorbing and paramountly interesting 
question? We hope we may have been mistaken. We 
hope it will be proven that there has not been a change 
as represented. If, however, it shall prove otherwise, we 
shall not hesitate to believe that executive favors have been 
solicited and executive smiles returned, and perhaps a din- 
ner.* 'It is by such arts,' said Mr. McDuffie, the cunning 
and artful seek to seduce those they wish to make use of, 
and win over to their purposes. ' But, thank God, while the 
representatives may be corrupted, the people are honest, 
and are above corruption. We still hope we are deceived 
as to this one member of the Illinois delegation. We hope 
he will, by his acts, preserve consistency and give no cause 
to any one to indulge in unpleasant reflections. Nothing 
whatever can be made more disagreeable to us than to be 
obliged to change our opinion of those of whose honesty and 
moral courage we have entertained previously the most ex- 
alted opinion. ' ' 

Mr. Snyder said that he, as well as every other public 

* Mr. Snyder had. by special invitation, dined with Mr. Van Buren, 
at the White House, on two occasions, a short time beifore. 



215 

man, must expect his share of abuse from licentious pa- 
pers, and in general it was unworthy of regard. But in 
the present instance the editor was an officer of this House, 
and thus had more influence with the community in that 
<'haracter. On this ground alone would he notice the false 
and base insinuation contained in the extract which he 
read. There was no doubt that he (Mr. S.) was alluded to, 
as he was the only one of the members from Illinois who 
had expressed any opinion upon the sub-treasury bill. He 
considered it his duty to state, in his place, that the charge 
was without foundation. He did so that the antidote might 
go forth with the poison. Mr. S. then made some allusions 
to Mr. Allen, and the circumstances of his election as Pub- 
lic Printer, remarking that he Avas voted for by some warm 
friends of the administration,. with the understanding that 
he was to support the administration." 

The foregoing extracts fr(>m the House Journals of the 
extra and first regular sessions of the twenty-fifth Con- 
gress are presented, not for their importance, but simply 
as evidence of Mr. Snyder's alertness and industry in the 
discharge of his public duties; and also, as an illustration 
of the ordinary work of a representative on the floor of 
the House. They indicate, in some degree, his possible ef- 
ficiency and usefulness in serving his constituents had he 
enjoyed sound health, and, considering his lamentable phy- 
sical condition., entitle him to some credit. 

On adjournment of Congress, in July, 1838, Mr. Snyder, 
in pitiable state of health, returned to his home without 
delay. During his absence of nearly a year great changes 
had taken place in Illinois in financial affairs, and in 
public opinion relative to the extensive internal improve- 
ments the State had undertaken. The country had not 
recovered from the panic of 1837. General suspension of 
the banks in the spring of that year, followed by depre- 
ciation of their currency, had caused a depressing revulsion 
in business. There was no cessation of activity on the 
public works; hundreds of laborers were employed in dig- 



216 

ging the canal, and in throwing up embankments and cut- 
ting through hills on the several railroad routes ; but paper / 
money — the only kind of money in circulation— had lost 
much of its purchasing value ; the banks had none to loan, 
and the people but little with which to meet their obliga- 
tions falling due. 

General uneasiness began to be felt regarding the tre- 
mendous State debt rapidly accumulating, the enormous 
annual interest to be paid, and the remote prospect of pay- 
ing returns from the promised railroads. The evident want 
of skill and knowledge of those in charge of the works; 
their many mistakes, and their prodigal waste of money, 
every day increased the numbers clamoring for the ruin- 
ous, visionary folly to be stopped. Gloom and despondency 
replaced the hopeful expectations of the year before. 



CHAPTER XI. 

Invalid life in Washington — Mr. Snyder's discourag-ing struggle 
with the inevitable. 

It was a custom of the French Catholics who early set- 
tled in Illinois, when a member of the family died, to de- 
stroy, as speedily as possible the wearing apparel, and all 
other articles intimately associated with the daily life of 
the deceased, excepting such as had commercial or legal 
value, in order to remove such constant reminders of the 
loved one, that, by their presence, tended to keep afresh 
the fountains of grief. In obedience to that sentiment, at 
Mr Snyder's death, not only his personal raiment, but all 
his correspondence, papers, documents, note books, and 
every scrap of his writing found upon the premises, were 
gathered together and burned with solemn reverence. 

Thus it was that when the task of writing this memoir 
w^as undertaken, with the exception of his last Will and 
testament, two letters to his youngest son, and a few frag- 
mentary notes for a speech, not a line of his manuscript was 
known to be extant. The preliminary notes for this sketch 
were about completed when Mrs. Mary K. Englemann, of 
LaSalle, daughter of the late Gov. Koerner, of Belleville, 
discovered among his papers quite a number of letters he 
had received from Mr. Snyder when in Congress, in 1838-9, 
which she kindly placed at the disposal of the writer. They 
were private and confidential communications to IMr. Koer- 
ner, his trusted friend and law partner, to whom he im- 
parted his thoughts and hopes, his pains and disappoint- 
ments, without restraint or reserve. 

By shedding occasional rays of light upon the political 
contentions of that era they possess some historic interest; 
but they are chiefly valuable— as a voice from the grave 
—in portrayal of their author — the man of luminous mind 
and genial, generous nature; the true unselfish friend; the 



218 

optimist of ambition and tireless enerojy; the submissive 
sufferer, stricken down upon the threshold of an honorable 
and successful career — in strong^er light than can be done 
by any biographer at this late date with the meagre data 
at hand. Liberal extracts from the letters are here pre- 
sented, omitting only matters of private or professional 
interest of no present interest to the public. The first of the 
series is dated at Washington, Jan. 2, 1838, and says: 

' ' The holidays being over, I think we will go at business 
in earnest. Abolitionism, annexation of Texas and diffi- 
culties with Mexico are the princpal topics of discussion. 
The subtreasury bill will be reported in the Senate next 
week, some different, as I understand it, from the last. 

"I see the Board of Commissioners (in Illinois) have 
placed under contract a great deal of the railroads. I fear 
we have undertaken too much. AA^hat effect has it had on 
real estate? I have heard of few, or no sales since fall. 
I fear produce is falling in Illinois. I see pork advertised 
at $2.50 in Jefferson county. What is it in Belleville? 
You know it is a kind of staple from which we can readily 
judge the price of most other products, particularly corn, 

' ' The weather continued fine until today, and now it' is 
snowing. I have never seen so fine a fall and winter as 
we have had up to this time. Rev. Mr. Hogan and Rey- 
nolds, I am informed, are out for Congress, the former cer- 
tainly; I suppose the latter also. In about fifteen days 
you may expect to receive a copy of the new subtreasury 
bill, and I wall then tell you whether it can pass or not. 
My wife writes me that Tom Short, of Kaskaskia, is dead. 
He was a clever man, and a friend of mine." 

Before that letter reached its destination, in Illinois, Mr. 
Snyder's health underwent an alarming change, suddenly 
prostrating him, and turning his buoyant hopes to the 
most gloomy forebodings. Again writing, on the 11th 
of January, he says: 

''Semple left here yeserday evening for New York in 
fine spirits. The evening he got here I had another hem- 



219 

orrhage from the lungs. Night before last another. I am 
confined to my room, and this is the first day I have been 
able to sit up and write. The evening before this attack 
came on I weighed 179 pounds* and thought I was going 
to be once more a sound man. This has painfully con- 
vinced me that I never will be well again. 

''I see the Vandalia paper states that I have submitted 
my claims (for re-election) to a convention. I have no 
recollection of giving any such authority. 

''I wish you would inform me whether the mail route 
from Belleville to Kaskaskia via Tamarawa has yet been 
put in operation. The bid of Mr. Robert Morrison at $277 
per annum was accepted. I hope he will carry it." 



''Washington City, Jan. 22, 1838. 
"My health is now bad, and has been worse. I was at- 
tacked with .bleeding from the lungs two weks ago and had 
five different hemorrhages. I am some better but improve 
slowly. I thought that I would entirely overcome my dis- 
ease, but find it worse now than ever. * * * * * * I 
admire the highminded, chivalrous disposition of the gal- 
lant Shields. He is a worthy descendant of Erin's best and 
proudest. I love the man whose soul sympathizes with 
struggling patriotism wherever it may be. But he will 
have no opportunity at present to indulge his penchant, as 
the news today is that Navy Island is abandoned, the pat- 
riots dispersed, and the whoJe matter ended. * * * # 
I state to you in confidence : for I do not wish it to come 
from me, that the nominee for Governor (Col. Stephenson) 
is a defaulter to the amount of $38,000. Unless he can 
pay it, you must know he can't get along. I repeat that 
Reynolds had better be put on the track should the other 
withdraw, which, under the circumstances, he must, I think. 
***** Semple is still in New York, and will sail 

* It was while apparently so much improved in health that he had 
sket?h'^wIs^co^?T^^^ painted, from which the frontispiece of this 



220 

in six days. He is much pleased Avith his appointment. 
Col. A. P. Field, from Vandalia, is here figuring about in 
fine company. He comes and sits with me frequently. 



> J 






AA^ASHiNGTON CiTY, Feb. 9th, 1838. 
Yours of the 23d ult. reached me on day before yester- 
day ; but owing- to my great debility I have been unable to 
write until todav. ]\Iv health for the last five weeks has 
been very bad. I had hemorrhages for fifteen days nearly 
every day. I know I did not escape more than one day 
in that time the most fearful and alarming hemorrhages 
from the lungs. I cautiously disguised and concealed my 
real condition during that time, fearful that my wife would 
learn it and be much distressed. I am again getting better; 
but God only knows how long it will last. I had become 
perfectly healthy, weighing nearly 180 pounds— never in 
my life weighed more, and never in my life had been so 
prudent and careful in my diet and habits. I flattered 
myself that I had conquerea the disease, and looked for- 
ward to the future with all the enthusiastic hope ; with all 
the bright anticipations my nature is capable of. Think 
how they are crushed, how great the change; how gloom- 
ily I now view the future, and how "cloudy the prospect ! 
You have no idea how I have suffered physically and 
mentally for the last five weeks. Alone in my room, a serv- 
ant my only companion; an occasional call from a fellow 
member with a cold, formal inquiry; the sagacious and 
doubtful answers of my physicians, the heartless opinions 
of those around me, as, 'he can't live.' I, who had always 
the anguish of sickness soothed by an affectionate wife who 
anticipated my every want, and sympathized with my suf- 
ferings ; surrounded by my children and relatives, and the 
kindest and most disinteresied of friends, you can well 
imagine my situation. I left my sick bed twice in that time 
to vote with my party, in the House, in the contested Mis- 
sissippi elections. With those exceptions I have been close- 



221 

ly confined to my room. Today I rode out in a carriage, 
as the weather is fine and liiild. 

''I had no doubt that Reynolds would run. Unless my 
health improves I will decline a re-election, let who will be 
the candidates. Should I come to this conclusion my only 
reason Avill be my unfortunate sickness and physical in- 
ability to undergo the duties of the position. I will con- 
clude in the course of three weeks, and give you notice 
when my final and fixed determination is taken. 

' ' The sub-treasury bill in the Senate will pass that body 
by a very small majority. Its fate in the House is more 
doubtful. From present ^appearances it will have great 
difficulty in passing here unless it is modified. One of 
the Senators has just informed me that there is strong rea- 
son to believe a junction was forming between the Whigs 
and Conservatives, to take up and press the Rives bill; 
that is, the old deposit bill with modifications. Should that 
combination take place, I will be found where I have 
always been. I will join no such party. I think it highly 
probable the opposition have entirely abandoned the scheme 
for a United States Bank, for the present, and will conse- 
quently join in any measure, however temporary, to defeat 
the administration. Nous verrons.'^ 



1 1 ■ 



WASHiiNTGTON CiTY, Feb. 15, 1838. 
I thank you for the feeling sympathy you express for 
me in my affliction. I was getting better, and went to the 
capitol, took cold, and have been, if anything, worse. You 
have but little idea how I have suffered, and yet suffer. 
God only knows when I can be again able to leave my room. 
The weather is peculiarly unfavorable to my disease, rain- 
ing, sleeting, mostly cloudy and the sun obscured. I will 
for the future attempt to be more careful; however, T de- 
spair of recovery under the circumstances. The disease is, 
I fear, too strongly seated to yeild to any treatment, or to 
any change of climate. * * * * The feature in the 
sub-treasury bill authorizing investment of the revenues 



222 

in stocks, etc., has been stricken out, and some other modifi- 
cations have been made in it. There is a report today 
that the Pennsylvania Legislature has instructed her Sena- 
tors to vote for suspending the sub-treasury bill. If that 
is so, there will be a majority of but one or two to pass 
it in the Senate. I have been so much out of the House 
that I cannot correctly conjecture its fate there. I believe 
now, as I did at first, that its adoption Avill be very difficult. 
If passed, I fear great business revolutions must follow; 
but when once fairly launched, and after it is in practical 
operation for some time, it Avill be a good measure. I per- 
ceive plainly that there is but one alternative noAV, the 
sub-treasury system, or a United States bank. I have no 
hesitation in that slate of the question which to choose. John 
D. Whiteside , State Treasurer, and Col. A. P. Field are 
here, and call to see me every day. ' 



"Washington City, Feb. 20th, 1838. 
" * * * * I was in the House again today, as my 
health is slowly improving. The sub-treasury bill was 
under discussion. It will pass the Senate by one or two 
majority. Its fate in the House is uncertain." 



"City of Washington, March 27, 1838. 
"The Senate on yesterday passed the sub-treasury bill 
by the vote of 27 to 25. The twenty-third section Avas 
■stricken out— that was Calhoun's amendment. The princi- 
ple of divorce is retained in the bill, and the President of 
the United States may direct that all the revenues may be 
made payable in specie, or in specie-paying bank paper. In 
other words, it is left discretionary with the President 
whether the public dues will be received all in specie, or 
not. I will vote for the bill in its present shape. I am of 
the opinion it is as strong now as it was before Calhoun's 
amendment was stricken out. The old Democratic party 
will be more concentrated and more unanimous than it has 



223 

heretofore been. ]\Iy own opinion is that on almost all 
measures we will unite. 

"I suppose by this time you are through with your 
circuit (courts). How frequently my thoughts dwell on 
the social, jovial rural scenes of the circuit. How gladly, 
when in fine health, I used io hail the time for commence- 
ment of the circuit ; to hake hands with my old friends ; 
to be congratulated by my clients, and welcomed by all; 
drawing amusement from every incident, and interest ex- 
cited by every new cause. How infinitely happier was I 
then than now— with robust health, and in full enjoyment 
of all my physical energies. Judge how deeply I regret 
that I never can enjoy it again. I must, I fear, remain an 
invalid for the few days, or years, I may have to live. 

' ' I see Breese, Reynolds and Hogan are out for Congress. 
The issue of the contest with those three, if left to them 
alone, would not be difficult to foretell. Breese cannot even 
make a respectable diversion. I perceive the system of in- 
ternal improvements is meeting a most spirited opposition. 
I have no doubt the scheme is too extensive, and I fear its 
results. Since I have seen the railroads of the east — 
how few pay even enough to keep them in repair— my 
anxeity has redoubled for my State. All may yet be well 
if the system is curtailed, as it ought to be. I see the ticket 
for the Legislature is again a mixed one. I presume the 
issue is improvements, or anti-improvements. I have been 
written to by some' of them. IMost all the candidates are, 
or have been my friends. I cannot and will not interfere 
in it, unless I get home before the election. If I do, I will 
certainly vote for some of the candidates. ' ' 



( i 

i i 



City of Washington, March 28, 1838. 
Enclos'id I send you a short notice of my intention to 
decline being a candidate for re-election. My health con- 
tinues bad. I fear it never will be better. The slender 
hope I have of prolonging my life a short time for my 
family, depends, I have no doubt, upon my withdrawal 



224 

from public life. I wish you, ]Mr. Shields and Pensoneau, 
to consult about the matter, and have enclosed paper pub- 
lished; probably the sooner you do it the better. I leave 
that with you. The sooner my determination is known the 
better, if you have arranged who you will support, and 
who you can elect. I fear much that in May's district an 
opposition man will be elected. I suppose that Reynolds 
will beat Hogan and Breese; or can you start a man you 
would prefer who can be elected? If so, you can hold this 
announcement of mine until you. get things ripe for action. 
I leave the whole matter with you, promising that I have no 
disposition or wish, under all circumstances, to run. ' ' 






City of Washington, April 6th, 1838. 
Your esteemed favor of the 24th iilt. I received today. 
By this time you have doubtless received my finale on the 
subject of running again. It is better that I should, for 
a season, repose. If I can ever regain my health, I can 
again take a new start. If not, it is better that I should 
now quit. From all the letters I have received I am con- 
fident I would have been re-elected. Had my health been 
such as to have justified it, I should, at all events, have tried 
it. Quitting now, under the circumstances, will, should my 
health ever be re-established, enable me to enter -the arena 
again under the most promising and flattering auspices. 
Reynolds will doubtless be elected now. It is probably 
better he should be:- at least, I hope that fellow Hogan 
may be beaten, and some man elected who will support 
the present administration. 

''The sub-treasury bill still sleeps on the table. There 
is no doubt a good majority in favor of a separation, but 
we differ about the details. My fears are that we will do 
nothing, and leave the old deposit system in full force with 
all its evils. Had the administration managers taken the 
first measure recommended by the President at the com- 
mencement of the special session, and not have adopted 
Calhoun's amendment, it would have passed. I am now 



225 

frequently congratulated by the Democrats upon my sa- 
gacity in predicting the consequences. The Senate has 
tried to remedy it now ; but too late. It will be some time 
before we are rectus in curia again. 

''Emigrants are pouring into our State in myriads, prin- 
cipally into the northern parts. I hope we will secure a 
share of them for our portion of the State also. 

"You have no idea of how much better I feel since I 
have abandoned politics— I feel suddenly lighter. Great 
God! if I can only regain my health, how cheap the cost 
will be. I may not come back here next winter, unless my 
health improves. I will seek some tropical climate to spend 
the winters in. I should have secured for myself the 
appointment I secured for Semple.* I could as easily 
have had it as him. His constitution would better 
stand campaigning in Illinois than mine. I perceive from 
the Belleville newspaper you are going to have an animated 
contest in August. I hope I will reach home before, the 
election. I would like to vote for some of my friends, and 
lielj) some others who have been yelping at my heels for 
some time past, and from whom I merited better treatment. 
But let it all pass. I wish to carry with me, in retiring 
from public life for a season, no unpleasant feelings. I 
hope I will be able to forget their ingratitude, and ever 
retain the friendship of those I esteem ; and live to rew^ard 
those who now, and always, have stood by me. 



> ? 



< < 



City of Washington, April 7, 1838. 
The kindness you express for me and mine is gratefully 
received. By thi>s time you will have seen that in conse- 
quence of my continued bad health I have to quit public 
life. This climate will kill me, and I must leave it. I 
Avill try to spend my winters in some tropical region. We 
must get up some scheme by which we can make money in 
some of the islands every winter, and spend our summers 
in Illinois. What do you think of it ? And if I get hearty 

* U. S. Minister to New Grenada, now Columbia, South America. 

-15 



226 

again I can then, if I Avisli, try politics— a thing, by the 
bye, not so very desirable. My quitting politics, I think will 
gratify two persons, viz. : John Reynolds and my wife. 
The former to get clear of me; the latter because she will 
have me at home more. I presume Reynolds will be 
elected. This is mere opinion at this distance from home, 
judging from things as they were when I left. I will take 
no part in the matter ; but should I reach home before the 
election, I will vote for one side or the other. 

I see by the Belleville paper that times there are getting 
pretty hot. The system of internal improvements seems to 
be meeting severe opposition, and our Commissioner* the 
special object of regard in that particular. Your opinion 
of him needs from me no response. I know all about it. 

''The sub-treasury bill is sleeping on our table, a deep 
sleep from which it vnR never awake. We must take a 
tack, and retrace our steps, or this administration is gone. 
They now begin to see I was right at the start. The banks 
will have hard work to resume, and I doubt much if they 
do. BiddJe is determined to prevent it. Importations 
are gradually increasing, and business connot get worse 
than it is. It must get better here. I fear that prices of 
lands and produce will fall in the west. Our system of 
internal improvements will bankrupt the State. I hope to 
God the svstcm will be curtailed, or discontinued. We 
should not have gone farther at present than improvement 
of our roads and rivers, and completion of the Illinois and 
Michigan Canal. Close attention to the subject since I 
came here has convinced me that we have gone into the 
matter too deeply. I have no demagogue spirit, or political 
motives in what I say. I favored the system; but rest 
assured I diudder at the consequences. 

''It is a fact that if all the railroads projected in Illinois 
were completed, in one day they Avould carry off all the 
produce, and in two more all the passengers. You and I 
always differed about the expected profits and benefits of 

* Gov. William Kinney. 




227 

the short railroad from the bluffs to the river. Now that 
it is constructed, Avho was right, you or me? 

''Hold up your means: get together all you can, and 
I think on my return I can point out a profitable way to 
invest them. At all events, I would advise you not to ex- 
pand too far in these times. Don't risk much until the 
times settle down into something like stability." 



( ( 



City op Washington, April 14, 1838. 
"Mr. Frederick Hilgard arrived here on yesterday even- 
ing after dark. Today I introduced him to the President 
of the United States, obtained for him a passport from 
the Secretary of State; arranged all his business; intro- 
duced him to my colleagues and other members, and took 
him all through the capitol and President's mansion. This 
evening, at 5 o'clock, he left for Baltimore, and will be 
in New York tomorrow morning, in time for the vessel that 
sails on the 16th. The graduation bill has passed the Sen- 
ate. I will make a desperate struggle for it in the House, 
and hope we will be able to pass it. 



? J 



"Washington City, April 15th, 1838, 
" * * * * I see from the papers that the Democ- 
racy of Illinois— at least some of the Democratic paper.*? 
— are dropping Stephenson and demanding another can- 
didate. If he continues to run the party will be beaten, 
and 1 fear it is now too late to bring out another man and 
elect him. How strange and unaccountable it is that a few 
men, out of personal feeling should have forced out a can- 
didate who will prostrate their party and cripple their 
friends. Had Reynolds been nominated he could have beaten 
Edwards, and that success would have enabled our party 
to elect the lower house of the Le<zislature ; the Senate is: 
already Whig. I fear much the House will be, too, from 
the way things are going on. I, in vain, urged on my 
friends the running of Reynolds for the reason that he could 
be elected. I do not like— and will never have the slightest 



228 

confidence in— Reynolds ; but it would be better to elect 
him and k^ep our party strong than have a rank Federalist 
for Governor, with a Federal Legislature. In political 
warfare; or, rather, in party tactics, we have sometimes 
to make the ends justify the means, more particularly when 
so much is at stake, and when so many unfortunate con- 
sequences have followed the imprudent steps taken. I hope 
the party will yet bring out Carlin, John D. Whiteside , 
or some other man who can unite it. It is of importance 
in the other elections, even if we should be beaten in the 
election for Governor. Having myself declined running 
for Congress, Reynolds would not now decline and run for 
Governor and yield the prospect he has for election. His 
wife, and indeed himself, would prefer his being in Con- 
gress to being Governor. I hope some efficient step will 
soon be taken; for I would most sincerely deplore the elec- 
tion of Edwards. All I can do, which is, even at this dis- 
tance, considerable, will be done for any man the party 
may choose to run. I will be for him, let him be whom he 
may. My health is again improving." 






Washington City, April 18, 1838. 
The Bank Convention, we just learn, has fixed on the 
first day of January next for resumption. I have not yet 
learned if Illinois was represented in it. If it was, I am 
astonished that our delegates did nat vote for an earlier 
date for resumption. I understand that there were but 
two States, New York and Mississippi, that voted against 
the first of January, the first because of their wish to fix 
on an earlier date; the other because they did not want to 
resume so soon. It only shows the influence the U. S. 
bank at Philadelphia is exerting on all other banks of the 
country. I had heretofore taken much pride in saying that 
(mr banks were in a condition to resume at any moment. 
Indeed I thought the banks of Kentucky, Indiana and Ill- 
inois were always ready to resume; but it seems they are 
not solvent, or are afraid of Biddle. They are certainly 



229 

actuated by fear, incompetency or dishonesty. I hope it 
is the former. You know I was opposed to our Legislature 
extending- to our banks any leniency. Subsequent events 
convinced me that I was right, although there were times 
when I doubted the justice of my opinions. I doubted 
strongly the policy of the sub-treasury measure, with the 
clause requiring the public revenues to be collected in 
specie, never because I was favorable to the banks, or with 
the view of favoring banks, but because I believed its 
effects on the people would be attended with the worst 
consequences. I feared it would bring down the price of 
labor and property immediately. It would prevent the 
banks from resuming and would distress the debtor class. 
I thought something ought to be done to aid the banks to 
resume ; at least, those of them that had acted honestly and 
were in a condition to resume. I now think that none of 
them deserve either the commisseration of the people, nor 
aid of the government, and that the people have not been 
benefited, but injured, by their suspension. The true pol- 
icy is to have nothing at all to do with them. Yet I am 
walling to grant all legal aid to the New York banks that 
are determined to resume specie payments, and I hope the 
government will so far as consistent with the constitution 
and laws, aid them; and that no favor or confidence A\dll 
be shown to those banks that have refused to resume. 
Many of them are interested in the depreciation of their 
own paper, in order to buy it up at a discount. The debt- 
ors are not interested in that. The loans from the banks 
are generally to merchants and speculators whose debtors 
cannot pay them in depreciated paper; but the}^ who owe 
the banks can pay their debts in the bank's depreciated 
paper. Thus the inequality and injustice of that state of 
things. 

' ' I have no doubt that every engine was brought to bear 
on the convention by the friends of a U. S. bank. The 
truth is, the opposition are opposed to resumption. They 
want to keep up the present distracted state of things to 



230 

force, if possible, on the people a United States bank. They 
want to keep the question agitated, and the country un- 
settled, and make all bear on the next presidential election. 
The fact is, the whole ground will have to be fought over 
against establishing a United States bank. I never did 
vote for a bank, and I am now of the opinion I never will. 
If I have ever shown them any favor it was not for love 
of them, but with the view of protecting the people who 
were in their unholy clutches. From this time forward I 
shall certainly oppose any connection whatever with them 
by the government. We must get out of their power. The 
sooner the better. The longer we put it off the greater the 
sacrifice will be. I. had hoped that by this time they would 
all have resumed specie payment, and that confidence 
would have been restored to the country. I, for one was 
disposed to aid them, with all the proper power of Con- 
gress, and willing to encourage their honesty and good 
faith. I fear much there are none that deserve it. For 
one, I will, at least, lend no aid to those that refused to 
resume, or have been intimidated by the letter and arro- 
gant threats of Biddle. I do not know w^hat effect it is to 
have on our body. I fear much that we will do nothing, as 
we are so much divided. I have Avritten you this letter 
whilst Gov. Lincoln is making a long speech on the propriety 
of tearing down the public building intended for the treas- 
ury department. 



J ? 



''City of Washington, April 23, 1838. 
<(# # ^ # «: rpj^g dueling committee has reported 

a resolution to expel Graves and to censure Wise and 
Jones. Two-thirds of the House will not vote to expel 
Graves. It will create a deep and unpleasant feeling in 
the House. The weather is again beautiful and my health 
somewhat improving." 



"House of Representatives, May 7, 1838. 
''Yours of the 22d ult. reachd me but today. * * * 



231 

I will distribute the cards you sent me when they will 
be useful. We have as yet done nothing since I last 
wrote to you. The report of the select committee is still 
under discussion. It has assumed a party hue entirely, 
and as such two-thirds of the House cannot be obtained to 
either pass a resolution of censure or of expulsion. We 
intend tomorrow to make an effort to lay it over for the 
present and bring up some imporant measure, the pre- 
emption, Florida war, or appropriation for the treasury 
buildings, bills. From present appearances we will be en- 
abled to pass the preemption bill by a small majority." 



"House of RepresentxItives, May 22, 1838. 
' ' I have procured the appointment of ]\Ir. Shields to take 
testimony in relation to charges preferred by Col. Jno. A. 
McClernand against S. R. Ronan, receiver of public money 
at Shawneetown. Should Mr. Shields be absent when the 
communication from Mr. Woodbury notifying him of the 
appointment reaches Belleville, be so kind as to send him 
word so that he may be apprised of it. The Secretary 
of the Treasury will send him all necessary instructions. 
I desire very much to get back to Illinois. It will soon be 
a year that I have been separated from my family and 
home friends. You have no idea how much I wish the time 
to arrive when I can return. My own opinion is that we 
will adjourn either the 2d or 9th of July. 

"I see from the last Shawneetown Voice extracts from 
a letter to the Backwoodsman attributed to me. I wrote 
that in confidence to Russell, the editor, with the view of 
inducing him to come into the Democratic party. It is 
true he does not state it is from me, but the others do. I 
have no objection to the sentiments expressed in it, but 
I did not intend it for publication. Russell and myself are 
old acquaintances and I am desirous of putting him on 
the right track." 



232 

"House of Representatives, June 16, 1838. 

"I have received the result of the Vandalia convention, 
and am very well pleased with the nomination, and hope 
it will succeed. I assure you I am better satisfied than if 
I had been nominated. Now, the utmost exertion should 
be used to ensure success. I know both of the men. They 
are sound Democrats and though not highly talented are 
sensible, firm and honest men. 

"AYe have just passed a most liberal preemption bill, 
granting to all settlers who have been four months on pub- 
lic lands, whether in market or not, before the passage of the 
bill, two years to enter their land. This will act as a credit 
of two years to the actual settler and will enable very many 
deserving poor men to secure homes for their families. AVe 
have not yet reached the graduation bill, and I, fear it will 
not be taken up for want of time. If it does not pass at 
this session it will pass at the next. The sub-treasury bill 
will be taken up on Monday. The vote will be close, and 
T do not think it will pass. The opposition are determined 
to defeat it, and will prevent, if possible, its being taken 
up or at all discussed. 

"I assure you I am very desirous of returning home. 
My long absence, together with my desire to see my family 
and friends, causes the time to hang heavily on my hands, 
notwithstanding the many exciting topics in the House 
every day. My health has improved much. I was able to 
speak nearly an hour day before yesterday on the subject 
of the preemption bill without any considerable inconven- 
ience to myself. Should the sub-treasury bill bp called up 
I will say something to place all my course in regard to 
that measure in its proper light. 



J ? 



"House of Representatives, June 26, 1838. 
"On yesterda}^ Ave took up the sub-treasury bill and it 
was voted down, yeas 111, nays 125. I was the only one 
of the Illinois delegates who voted for it. I did not like 



233 

the bill, but concluded to give my party the benefit of any 
doubts. I regret that it was persisted in, but it is probably 
better that a direct vote was taken upon it. We will now 
return to the deposit system, like the ' sow to her wallowing 
in the mire.' We gained this much, that the opposition 
have forced us to this state of things, and if the system 
proves wrong we cannot be saddld w^th the failure. The 
banks will do as they have heretofore done, expand and 
burst. The opposition are in high spirits, and look for- 
w^ard to the success of Clay and a National Bank as certain. 
This is the true question. Do you not remember that at 
the special session I predicted the consequences of our ultra 
and radical, as well as sudden, change of measures would 
force us into a minority? I fear much it will turn out too 
true. Having no feeling in common with the opposition, I 
came long since to the determination to 'nail my colors to 
the mast of my party, and go down with them.' I hope I 
may be mistaken, but the signs are squally. How many 
regret that they djid not follow my advice of taking a 
moderate measure first. But it is probably better as it is. 
•We have fixed on the 9th day of July to adjourn. I will, 
I hope, be at home by the 20th of July. 

"The news from the northern district of Illinois is flat- 
tering. I think Douglas will succeed. Casey has no op- 
position; and I suppose Reynolds will beat Hogan. If so 
the State will be safe. The Governor wdll probably be lost 
to us. I hear that Carlin may not succeed. I hope he will. 
I hope soon to have the pleasure of meeting you, and all 
my old friends in good health." 



< ( 

< ( 



House of Representatives, June 29th, 1838. 
I have received your favor of the 16th together with 
the proceedings of a public meeting regarding the change 
of the stage route passing through our town.* I had suc- 
ceeded in causing the order to be rescinded before the pe- 

* The change referred to was in running the mail line from Leba- 
non direct to St. Louis, leaving Belleville six miles to one side. 



234 

tition or proceedings of the meeting reached me ; of which 
you are, no doubt, by this time apprised. The change was 
made without my knowledge. The first intimation I had 
of it was in a letter from Mr. ]\Iitchell, on the receipt of 
which I immediately went to work to obtain its re-establish- 
ment. It is now all right, and I hope will continue so. 

''I see in a St. Louis German paper you have com- 
mitted old Reynolds. I was pleased to see it. I took much 
pains to read it and understood it well. The native Amer- 
ican society has entirely gone down; it does not exist here 
even in name. It was at best a perfect failure, and ever 
\\411 be under this form of government. It is antagonistic 
to the spirit of our constitution and free institutions. The 
society was a futile and puerile attempt to affect this ad- 
ministration, by rearing a party against it. Since the City 
of New York has given a majority against the admin- 
istration, you hear no more of the influence of foreigners 
on our electons. Our party despises to make use of such 
contemptible means to prejudice the public against emi- 
grants. Hence, we have not attributed our defeat there to 
that cause, as always did the opposition. 

"We are beaten on the sub-treasury, and must now go 
before the people. It ivill not he abandoned. The party 
is determined to sink or swim with its principles. If it 
goes down it will be with its colors flying— they are nailed 
to the mast. The opposition will make a national bank 
their grand rallying measure. We are left no alternative. 
To go back to the deposit sytem is to go back to an ex- 
pedient that has failed, and will again. We cannot and 
will not vote for a United States Bank. A separation of 
the finances of the government from all banks, and the col- 
lection of the revenues in gold and silver, will, I think, 
be the policy on which our party will rally. There is noth- 
ing left, so far as I can see. 

"I assure you that time hangs very heavily on my hands. 
I have a feverish anxiety to get home. My long absence, 
bad health and confinement to the duties of my station, 



235 

make me look forward to the moment of deliverance from 
this place with as much anxiety as a criminal does from long 
confinement to the day his prison door is to be opened. 

' ' Should I meet with no accident I will reach home about 
the 25th of July ; in time to vote and to help our friends. ' ' 



( ( 



City of Washington, July 8th, 1838. 

''Herewith I send you the letter of Fairfax Catlett, 
Charge d 'Affairs from Texas. This information may be 
relied on. But you had better wait until I return and I 
will aid you in procuring the information you require. I 
have no doubt that Bunsen's heirs are entitled to a con- 
siderable portion of land there. 

"I leave tomorrow for home. I will travel as rapidly 
as possible, neither turning to the right, or to the left until 
I reach Belleville. We adjourned this morning at 8 o'clock, 
having been in a most fatiguino- session all night. I stood 
it well. Have just got up. 



? ? 



CHAPTER XII. 

Mr. Snj'der willing to make the race for Governor in place of Col. 
Stephenson, withdrawn — Thomas Carlin nominated and elected 
— Internal Improvements continued — Mr. Snyder's summer vaca- 
tion — His letters from AVashington City to Mr. Koerner. 

Before leaving his home for "Washington, in August, 
1837, Mr. Snyder made preliminary arrangements for the 
erection of a large, fine house on the site of the old dilapi- 
dated combination of rooms and sheds he had occupied, 
with his family, as their residence, since the spring of 
1833. In the condition of money matters then, and absence 
of transjDortation facilities, the building of a stylish, two- 
story, brick dwelling house was a serious and ex- 
pensive undertaking. The lumber, contracted for, to be 
used in its construction, in trees still standing in the woods, 
had yet to be cut down, then taken to the saw mill and 
sawed to required dimension, then kiln-dried, and the whole 
of it dressed and joined by hand. The contract for shin- 
gles reciuirecl walnut trees to be felled and cut, Avith a 
long cross-cut saw, in blocks of regulation length, to be 
split with a frow, and each shingle reduced to proper thick- 
ness and shape with a drawing knife— at $10 per thousand. 
Contracts were made with different parties for burning 
lime, and furnishing sand; for quarrying stone for the 
cellar and foundation, and for making bricks — at $10 per 
thousand. Contracts were made with laborers for removing 
the old house, and excavating the cellar, and foundation 
trenches; Avith stone and brick masons to erect the Avails; 
with plasterers; A\dth carpenters, Avho dressed, tongue-and- 
grooved the ash and oak floors, and framed and fitted, all by 
hand, the Avindow and door frames, doors, sash and shutters, 
and all the other Avood work; and finally, Avith painters, 
glaziers and paper hangers. 

When Mr. Snyder arrived in Belleville, near the close of 
July, 1838, he was pleased to see the encouraging progress 



237 

made on his new building. The old house, save a one- 
story room Mr. Dennis had recently added before selling 
the place, was torn away and the cellar and foundation 
walls, of stone masonry, had upon them the brick walls as 
high as the second floor. 

The first political convention for nominating party can- 
didates for State offices in Illinois, was held by Democratic 
delegates at Yandalia, on the 4th of December, 1837, result- 
ing in the nomination of Col. James W. Stephenson for 
Governor, and John L. Hacker for Lieutenant Governor. 
About the same time Stephen A. Douglas was nominated 
for Congress in the Springfield District. 

Col. Stephenson 's location, Galena, was an important fac- 
tor in securing his nomination; as all previous Governors 
had been taken from the southern part of the State— Dun- 
can having but recently moved up to Jacksonville before 
his election— and the AAHiigs having, without convention, 
but by common consent, united upon Hon. Cyrus Edwards, 
of Edwardsville, as their candidate, the voters of the north- 
ern part of the State demanded the candidate from that 
region as a matter of justice and reward for their party 
loyalty. 

The candidate for office is usually — and justly— regard- 
ed a legitimate subject for critical investigation. His his- 
tory and character, as public servant and private citizen, 
are open to the closest scrutiny, and no defect in his per- 
sonal or political record can long remain concealed. Col. 
Stephenson had not long been a candidate for Governor 
when serious charges were preferred of irregularities in 
his accounts when receiver of the land office. Gov. Ford 
says: "A candidate should never deny any charge made 
against him for, if he does, his adversaries will prove all 
they have said, and much more." To avoid the disadvant- 
age of having the party placed upon the defensive in the 
campaign. Col. Stephenson's friends induced him to with- 
draw. Mr. Hatcher, although under no charges, also with- 
drew, to relieve the party from all embarrassments. 



238 

The same delegates assembled again, at Vandalia, on 
June 16, 1838, at the call of Col. Wm. L. D. Ewing, Chair- 
man, when Thomas Carlin, of Adams county, and Sidney 
Breese, of Clinton, were proposed for nomination. LIr. 
Carlin was nominated for Governor, arid Stinson H. An- 
derson, of Jefferson county, for Lieutenant Governor. Mr. 
Koerner, who was a delegate in that convention, says, in 
his unpublished memoirs: ''At any rate, I was constantly 
called on for help by aspiring candidates, and consequently 
placed very often in a difficult position. When, for in- 
stance, I was a delegate to the State Convention at Van- 
dal ia in 1838, Mr. Snyder, whose Congressional term was 
soon to expire, feeling just then considerably better, wished 
to be a candidate for Governor.* Judge Breese, who was 
then on the bench and very friendly to me, also desired my 
support; and so did Gov. Reynolds. Of course I could 
not hesitate. Mr. Snyder was as competent as any of his 
rivals ; his character was open and sincere, and his friend- 
ship to me really knew no bounds. But neither of these 
gentlemen had any chance in the convention. All the 
Governors of the State thus far had been taken from the 
south of the State naturally enough since the great bulk 
of the population had lived south. But for the last four 
or five years a very large population had been pouring into 
the northern part of our StatiC, from New England, New 
York, and even Ohio. They were mostly intelligent, ener- 
getic and calculating people, and in politics better schooled, 
as far as organization was concerned, than we in the south. 
Their delegates, combining with the delegates of the middle 



* Here Gov. Koerner's memory is again defective. Mr. Snyder 
stated positively that he did not wish to be a candidate, and would 
only consent to be presented to the convention for nomination if he 
was the unanimous choice of his party; for he believed the Democrat 
nominated would be defeated at the election; but consented to lead 
the forlorn hope if the party insisted upon it. And because of the 
precarious condition of his health he preferred not to be mentioned 
in that connection. Nor did Gov. Reynolds desire Gov. Koerner's 
support in that convention; for his election to Congress was certain, 
and he would not then have exchanged that position for the Gover- 
norship. 



239 

part, insisted upon, and nominated a northern man. Per- 
haps we could have still nominated Mr. Snyder, he being 
indeed popular everywhere, but his rivals reported his 
health as so hopelessly bad that it seemed to many even of 
his friends imprudent to nominate him. And yet was it 
not a most singular incident that Col. Stephenson, of Ga- 
lena, the man w^ho had been nominated before, died within 
four or five months, of consumption, while Mr. Snyder did 
not succumb to that terrible disease until four years later. ' ^ 

Mr, Carlin, when nominated for Governor, was regard- 
ed as a -"northern" man, geographically, having settled 
originally in Greene county, then an extreme northern 
county, and for the last four years was a resident of 
Quincy, where he served as receiver of the land office. 

Cyrus Edwards, brother of the former Governor, Ninian 
Edwards, was a very able and popular man, a lawyer of 
high reputation, well knowTi all over the State, having 
served in the Black' Hawk war, and in both branches of the 
Legislature. His friends felt confident of his election, as 
the unpopular course of the Van Buren administration 
had caused serious dissentions in the Democratic party, and 
manv of its conservative members had recently recruited 
the Whig ranks. However at the State election, on the 
6th day of August, 1838, Carlin was elected Governor, de- 
feating Mr. Edwards by the small majority of 996, "the 
nearest the Whigs ever came to carrying the State." Gov. 
Reynolds was elected to Congress in the First district by 
a large majority.* In the Second district Zadok Casey 
was re-elected, and in the Third district Major John T. 
Stuart, the Whig candidate, defeated Stephen A. Douglas 
by only 14 majority. Though the Whigs failed to elect 
their Governor, they secured a majority in both branches 

* John Hogan, defeated for Congress by Gov. Reynolds, had been 
a Methodist preacher; was a native af Ireland, very intelligent, and 
an eloquent speaker. He was a "Whig member of the lower house of 
the Legislature in 1836, and one of the most enthusiastic supporters 
of the internal improvement scheme. After his defeat by Reynolds 
he turned to be a Democrat, and moved from Alton to St. Louis, and 
there was elected to Congress. 



240 

of the Legislature, the Senate having 21 AVhigs, 16 Demo- 
crats and 3 Independents; and the House, 46 Whigs, 40 
Democrats and 5 Independents. 

Mr. Snyder's summer vacation was by no means a period 
of rest and inactivity. A vast amount of private and pro- 
fessional business had accumulated during his long ab- 
sence that required his personal attention and kept him 
constantly employed until time for his return to Washing- 
ton. He visited his town, Tamarawa, on two or three oc- 
casions, and also Cahokia, and attended the fall term of 
circuit court in some of the adjoining counties, where he 
addressed his constituents, giving them an account of what 
he tried to do for them, and of the drift of public opinion 
and legislation in Congress. Clients, politicians and old 
personal friends came to liis office, or temporary residence, 
daily to consult him on every variety of subjects, or for 
mere friendly interviews. He was much interested in the 
building of his new dwelling, and found pleasure, when 
time permitted, in examining every part of it, and in- 
structing the mechanics regarding all details of the Avork. 
He was very happy in his domestic relations, and the pride 
and interest of his existence centered in his home, his wife 
and three sons. 

With reluctance, and only in obedience to a stern sense 
of duty, he took his departure from Belleville in October 
and returned to Washington City, to resume his seat in 
Congress. 

Governor Duncan's term of office expired on the 3d of 
December, 1838. When he assumed the office, four years 
before, the total indebtedness of the State, including the 
Wiggins loan, amounted to $217,276. By the expiration 
of his term it had increased to $6,688,784; for which, how- 
ever, he was in no manner responsible. By the 24th of 
December, 1838, there had been expended upon the pub- 
lic improvements in Illinois, $1,142,027. The Fund Com- 
missioners had paid for State stock in the Bank of Illinois, 

,000,000 ; for railroad iron and expenses, $69,422 ; for 



241 

interest on State bonds $292,250, and to counties not 
traversed by either canal or railroads, $144,700. 

When the eleventh General Assembly met at Vandalia, 
in December, tlie Whig Senate Avas presided over by a 
Democrat, Stinson H. Anderson, and Gov. Carlin shared 
the fate of his predecessors, Coles, Edwards, Reynolds and 
Duncan, in having the dominant party in the Legislature 
opposed to him. In organizing the House, Abraham Lin- 
coln — whose greatness had not yet developed — was the 
Whig candidate for Speaker, and though his party had a 
majority of one over the Democrats and Independents com- 
bined, he was defeated by William L. D. Ewing, a Demo- 
crat, the vote standing, for Ewing, 43, and for Lincoln, 38. 

Gov. Carlin was born, of Irish parents, near Frankfort, 
Kentucky, on July 18th, 1789. He attended country schools 
but long enough to learn to read, write and cipher. In 
1802 his parents migrated to Missouri Territory, and there 
his father died in 1810. He then came to Illinois, and 
during the Indian troubles incident to the war of 1812 
served as a Ranger, along with Gov. Reynolds. When dis- 
charged from the servjce, in 1814, he was united in mar- 
riage to Miss Rebecca Huitt, and settled on the Mississippi 
bottom opposite the iiiouth of the Missouri river. In 1820 
he moved into Green county, and the next year founded 
there the town of Carroll ton, to which he made liberal 
donations of land for public buildings. In 1822 he was 
converted and baptised into the Baptist church under the 
ministration of Rev, John ]\I. Peck. He was elected sheriff 
of Greene county and subsequently State Senator for two 
terms. He was captain of a volunteer company in Major 
James D. Henry's Odd Battalion of Spies, in the Black 
Hawk war, enlisted April 20th, and discharged May 27th, 
1832. In 1834 he was appointed by i^resident Jackson re- 
ceiver of the land office at Quincy, and he there resided until 
after expiration of his term of Governor, when he retired to 
his farm in Greene county where he died on the 14th of Feb- 
ruary, 1852. After retiring from the Governorship his 
-16 



242 

only reappearance in public life was in 1849, when he was 
elected to tiie lower house of the Legslaturre to fill the un- 
expired term of Col. J. D. Fry, who had resigned. In 
stature Gov. Carlin was above medium height, strong and 
muscular, with fair complexion, high forehead, blue eyes, 
sandy hair, long nose and thin face and lips. He was not 
brilliant, but well stocked with strong, practical sense and 
determination of purpose. Above all, he Avas conscienti- 
ously honest and incorruptible. 

In his last message to the Legislature, when retiring 
from the executive chair. Gov. Duncan deprecated the in- 
ternal improvement craze in the most emphatic terms, and 
implored the General Assembly to call a halt, and try to re- 
l^air, as far as possible, the wretched mistakes of the last 
Legislature. 

Thoughtful, conservative party friends of Gov. Carlin 
fondly hoped, and expected, he would make the same wise 
recommendation; but to their astonishment and disgust he 
said, in his inaugural message, ''The signal success which 
has attended our sister States in their extensive systems 
of internal improvements can leave no doubt of the wise 
policy and utility of such works," and enlarged upon their 
usefulness in developing ''the natural and hidden resources 
01 the country;" and, further, extolled the plan adopted 
for construction of the works by the State as, in every way, 
wiser and better than that of entrusting them to joint 
stock companies, or private corporations. "Under the 
present plan of proceeding," he said, "near two millions 
of dollars have been expended, and whatever diversity of 
opinion may now exist as to the expediency of the system 
as originally projected, all must admit that the character 
and credit of the State forbid its abandonment." 

In that view the Legislature coincided. In both houses 
of the Legislature were many old members who had voted 
in the last Legislature to adopt the grand scheme, and 
were yet unshaken in the faith of its ultimate success. No 
part of the system was repealed, but more was added to it. 



243 

Bills were passed appropriating for improving- navigation 
of Rock River, $50,000 ; for the Little Wabash, $150,000 ; 
for the Big Muddy, $20,000 ; and for the Embarras, $20,- 
000. Also $10,000 to make a road from Cahokia Creek to 
Kaskaskia, $100,000 to construct a railroad from Rushville 
to Erie on the Illinois river, and $20,000 to be expended on 
the western mail route. Bills were also passed for im- 
provement of the Illinois river to Ottawa, and for a branch 
railroad from the proposed Alton and Shelbyville road to 
Carrollton. The appropriations made for the new im- 
provements mentioned aggregated almost a million dollars. 

An unsophisticated member from the AVabash region 
had the temerity to introduce a bill for "An Act to mcor- 
porate a company to build a railroad from Albion to Gray- 
ville," which was referred to the Committee on Internal 
Improvements. Mr. Smith, of Wabash county, chairman 
of that all-important committee, in reporting the bill back 
adversely, said: "In the judgment of the committee it is 
inexpedient for the Legislature to authorize corporations, or 
individuals, to construct railroads or canals calculated to 
come in competition with similar works now in course of 
construction under the State system of internal improve- 
m.ents. ' ' 

An Act was passed directing the Governor to negotiate 
a further loan of $4,000,000 for completion of the Illinois 
& ]\Iichigan canal. IMuch of the session was fritted away 
with discussions of national questions by aspiring mem- 
bers ; but yet, several measures of importance were euacted. 
Among them was the Act for establishing the Deaf and 
Dumb Institution located in Jacksonville. A law was 
passed prohibiting the banks from issuing bills of less de- 
nomination than five dollars. Another law passed made it 
obligatory for the Governor to reside at the seat of gov- 
ernment during his term of office. The Chicago Lyceum 
was incorporated, and an appropriation made for purchas- 
ing a library for the Supreme Court. 

Mr. Lincoln, of Sangamon, introduced a bill providing 



244 

for the purchase, by the State, of all the public lands 
vdthin its limits, estimated at 20,000,000 acres, ' ' at twenty- 
five cents per acre ($5,000,000), pledgino: the faith of the 
State to carry the proposal into effect if accepted by the 
general government." The bill failed to pass. The 
eleventh General Assembly adjourned on the 4th of 
March, 1839 and was the last Legislature to meet at Van- 
dalia, that town ceasing to be the capital of Illinois on 
the 4th of July of that year. 

Mr. Snyder journeyed by stage to Washington City, 
and a few davs after his arrival there wrote to Mr. Koerner, 
01 Belleville, as follows : 






Washington City, Dec. 8, 1838. 
Today I received your letter of the 23d ult. I am 
surprised that none of my letters have reached home. I 
wrote from Terre Haute, Ind., from Columbus, Ohio; 
Uniontown, Pa., and Baltimore, all of which, save the last, 
should have reached home before you wrote. I was twen- 
t.y-three days traveling and stood the trip remarkably well. 
Since coming here I have been confined, and am still con- 
fined, to my room with a most inveterate cold, which, as 
usual, has fastened on my lungs. I hope, however, to get 
out by Monday. Pensoneau left me Thursday morning 
and will be in Belleville about the 19th or 20th inst. 

"How do you like the message? It takes very well 
Iiere. I could have wished that he (Van Buren) had said 
nothing about his friendship for the banks. On the whole, 
it does him credit as a writer more than it elevates him as 
a statesman. It is too hard labored; seeking too much to 
conciliate; not strong, firm and decisive as were both his 
former messages. This my opinion to you, for to no other 
have I expressed my opinion, but approbation of it on gen- 
eral terms. The President is in good spirits; so is our 
party. We succeeded finely in the election of a Clerk. 

"The Pennsylvania Legislature is in trouble. Our 
friends there have now possession of both houses and are 



245 

going- on smoothly. The Whigs were determined to have 
possession by fraud, but it will result favorably to our 
course in the sequel. 

''I learn Breese is really an applicant for the Secretary- 
ship ; so are Dougherty, Prickett and Ford. I have no 
idea that Field will persist. He will not be sustained even 
by his own party. * * * * 

"On the subject of Mr. Ledergerber 's proposition, I 
cannot accept the price he offers. I gave upwards of nine 
dollars per acre for the land and have already been of- 
fered eleven dollars an acre, all down. I cannot take less 
than $12.50 an acre, half down, the balance one year credit 
at twelve per cent interest. Neither do I wish to be bound 
to take that price after this wanter. Please inform Mr. 
Charles that I have nowhere any timber for sale at any 
price unless I sell the land with it. 

"Should Dr. Netitleton not have paid the note, will you 
please write to him stating that it is important to me that 
he should pay it? 

"I suppose if Breese is not successful for Secretary of 
State he will be a candidate for Commissioner of Internal 
Improvements next, and so on for every office in the gift 
of the Legislature." 



"Washington City, Dec. 25, 1838. 
"Our Senators are alarmed for fear that a resolution 
instructing them to vote against the sub-treasury bill may 
pass in our Legislature. I sincerely hope that will not be 
the case. My own opinion is that there is more danger 
of its passage in your lower house than in your Senate. I 
am. informed that Herndon, of Sangamon, will' vote in 
favor of the sub-treasury. If so, unless some of our men 
bolt, the resolution cannot pass the Senate. I have less 
confidence in three or four of our party in the lower house. 
Nous verron. The sub-treasury bill presented at this ses- 
sion of the House is certainly not objectionable to any real 



246 

Democrat, and oug-lit to satisfy any reasonable man. I 
will send you a copy of the bill as soon as it is printed. 
I think yon will be pleased with it. 

"I am much pleased with Carlin's message, in all save 
the internal improvement question. In that he was wrong. 
Why has he not yet appointed a Secretary of State'? Is 
Field determined to hold on, and will he be sustained in 
such an anti-republican course? 

''We have had much Avarm debate on the propriety of 
recognizing- the independence of Hayti. The representa- 
tives of slave-holding States object and exhibit much feel- 
ing on the subject. The northern men are pressing it; 
some from considerations of policy anxious to increase the 
commercial interests of the country; and the Abolitionists 
from motives of fanaticism; or with a view to sti^nglhen 
their cause. AVe will in a few days g'et at business in 
earnest, and, I hope, much may be done for us in the west. 

*'Is there any prospect of having the courts postpond 
to a later period, or the terms of Jiolding them increased, 
or prolonged? Something ought to be done in that mat- 
ter. 

"The weather here is, and has been, very cold for four 
cr five days. It confines me almost entirely to my room. 
My health has not been good for some time ; that, how^ever, 
cannot be expected. 

*' Today ]\tr. Gooding, from Bogota, New Grenada, called 
on me. He left Semple Avell. He says Semple talked of 
returning to take his family there. I presume he could 
get leave to do so. Mr. Gooding informs me that Semple 
is highly pleased with that country and will probably re- 
side there some time." 



"Washington City, Jan. 3, 1839. 
* * * "I have no news to write you that you do not 
get in the papers. The graduation bill will again pass the 



247 

Senate and again lodge in the House, I fear the sub- 
treasury bill cannot pass ; the measure seems to have gained 
no friends in the House. 

"The weather is extremely cold and unpleasant. ]\Iy 
health is not good. Accept my kindest wishes for your 
welfare." 






WxVSHiNGTON City, Jan. 17, 1839. 
Yours of the 5th inst. reached me on yesterday. I am 
truly sorry to learn the extent of sickness prevailing- in and 
around Belleville, and particularly pained to hear of the 
death of Mrs. E. Hilgard which is truly a loss. This city, 
I am told, has been, during the winter, unusually healthy. 

* ' Reynolds is passing the winter at Vandalia, mixing and 
mingling in every little whirlpool and coterie of political 
intrigue — a sure way of gaining many enemies where par- 
ties bear the complexion they do there. What you say about 
the feelings of the party in regard to our friend Shields 
is strictly true. And what you say in regard to indepen- 
dence of opinion and conscience, I have been long since 
convinced of by experience. A perfect tyranny exists, and 
God help the victim who dares express an opinion in 
opposition to the orthodoxy of party. Excommunication 
and proscription is his inevitable destiny. This did not 
heretofore obtain in our party; it has only appeared since 
converted Federalists and new-born Democrats have seized 
the direction and control of the Democratic party. It 
must be purged of self -constituted leaders, and then it will 
resume its wonted purity. 

"Parties here are changing some. We are now in a 
minority in our House on all leading questions. Since 
Rives, of the Senate, has entirely gone over to the oppo- 
sition, the conservatives of our House have followed, so 
that we are really in a minority. Next Congress will not 
change the relative position. Mr. Van Buren's adminis- 
tration must be stormy and exciting. Indeed, I am alone 
from our State in the House. My two colleagues are evi- 



248 

dently on the opposition side. You will see by the vote 
of yesterday in the House that the opposition carried their 
committee and mode of voting. I Avas unable to be in the 
House, and had I been it could not have changed the result. 
The graduation bill passed the Senate on yesterday. It 
will not pass in our House this session. 

''Yesterday the session was half over. Do you know 
that like a child from its parents, I count the days and 
almost the hours that will yet detain me here. I have no 
taste for what is going on here. Confined to my room 
most of the time unable to participate in the debates of the 
House, or even to enjoy myself out of it ; continued and 
uninterrupted ill health poisons my existence. I have a 
serious intention of going home by way of New Orleans, to 
see what effect the sea voyage will have on my health. It 
will doubtless produce a sudden change in my disease ; the 
physicians here think an unfavorable one. Even that is 
almost preferable to hopeless prostration and bad health 
that, at best, cannot endure long. 

''I was introduced to the Austrian minister the other 
day, who seems to be an intelligent, gentlemanly man, 
speaking French fluently and English tolerably well. 



7 ") 



< < ' 



Washington City, January 19, 1839. 
''I will have no further use for my office (building), an. I 
if I could sell it for what it is worth I would do so. My 
intention is to entirely close up all of my business next 
summer. The fact of my having to reside in the south 
during the winter seasons will make it necessary that all 
the means I can raise at present from my property that 
will sell, I must so apply. You once wished to know of 
me whether I would sell it (the office). At that time I con- 
cluded I would not. I would like to sell the fine block of 
lots and stone quarry immediately north of my home block; 



249 

also about twenty acres of land adjoining the town.* I 
would sell that property, as I can do without it, and it will 
sell more readily than any large and uncultivated tracts of 
land. If you can aid me in those sales I would be much 
obliged to you. ]\Iy office ought to be worth ten or twelve 
hundred dollars. I am in no hurry about it but mention 
it to you now that should you see any person who may 
wish to purchase you can avail yourself of it. 

"I am satisfied that if a change of climate will not aid 
to prolong my life a few years, nothing else will. 

"Reynolds recently wrote to Casey to try to restore 
fi'iendship between him (Reynolds) and myself, and Casey 
showed me the letter. Reynolds is still afraid I will again 
lun for Congress. I told Casey to tell him there would 
never be friendship between us. I will not even deal with 
insincerity, or with such a rascal as I know Reynolds to be. 
I presume, however, if he hears that 1 intend going to the 
south he will not feel so anxious about my friendsliip. 

"The truth is, if Florida agrees with my health I may 
permanntly" reside there. That, however, I can alone de- 
termine after making trial of a Avinter there, which I cer- 
tainly will do, if I live. 

"Mrs. Semple writes me that she declines going to Bo- 
gota for the present. I wrote to Semple suggesting that 
he will ask leave of the President to return for his family. 
I think the President would grant it, and Semple could 
then arrange his business for an absence of two or three 
vears more. 

"I believe I mentioned to you in a former letter my 
intention of returning by sea via New Orleans. Please do 
not mention it so that my family may know it ; for my 
vrife would probably imagine more danger attends the voy- 
age than really does." 

* He sold that twenty acres, in 1839, to John Flannegan and Theo- 
dore J. Krafft, who subdivided it in lots and platted it as Flanne- 
gan and Krafft's addition to Belleville. 



250 

''Washington City, Feb. 12th, 1839. 

' ' ]\Iy Dear Friend : 

' ' I would have answered your letter long since, but have 
been prevented by most dang^erous and painful indisposi- 
tion, and the most severe attack of hemorrhage I ever yet 
have been afflicted with. I am getting better, for the last 
few days. Yesterday I was able to sit up half the day. 
So soon as I am strong enough to get aboard a vessel, 1 
\\dll sail for Florida, Cuba and New Orleans. I do not 
expect to reach home until the latter part of April or first 
of May, unless I find that the south, or sea voyage increases 
my disease. In that event I will hurry home to arrange 
certain business that others could not so well do as myself, 
and which I have neglected to do. 

"You know the physicians in England, to prevent their 
patients dying on their hands, advise them to go to southern 
France, Italy, etc. ]\rine seem to have adopted the same 
practice, and now all unite on insisting that I must go 
south, and that I must make the trip by sea. They admit 
they cannot cure me ; that no remedies will reach my case ; 
that my lungs are most certainly diseased; in fine, that 
my case is a desperate one; that the south may save me, 
but here I must die. So, you see, in whatever aspect I 
regard my condition, it is not a pleasant one ; and that 
my lease here is nearly out, my sands almost run. 

"I will be glad if you will write me at New Orleans, as 
I can receive your letter there, and I Avill Avrite to you 
again before leaving here. I cannot tell when that will 
be; maybe not before adjournment of Congress, and even 
not then. All depends upon my condition. My physicians 
think I will be able to embark in two weeks. It may be 
so. I will, however, advise you of it. At all events your 
letter would probably not reach me here. * * * * 

"I have no political news to write you. My mind has 
not dwelt much on those topics for the last ten or twelve 
days. I send you the daily Glohe so that you may be ad- 
vised of what is going on. Our Senators will obey the in- 



251 

structioDS of our Legislature and not resign. This will not 
be difficult for them to do, as, I have no idea, the sub-treas- 
ury bill will pass at this session ; and much less at the next. 
I hope our House mil take a vote on it. If it does, and I 
am able, I will go to the House and vote for the bill. The 
instructions of the Legislature I totally disregard, so far 
as I am concerned; to my knowledge, more than enough 
voted for those instructions (in the Legislature), by which 
they were passed, who misrepresented their counties— eight, 
I am certain, who represent sub-treasury counties, footed 
for those resolutions ; to-wit : Marshall, Dunn, Webb, 
Murphy, Thomas, IMorgan, Copeland and Jarrott. So, too, 
in the Senate; Murray and Moore— the latter represents 
three counties, two of which are sub-treasury counties — 
Gatewood, of Gallatin, and probably others. Our Senators 
(here) may not be justified in looking behind the Legisla- 
ture to the people; but I recognize no right they have of 
telling me what are the wishes of the people. I am the 
people's immediate representative, alone rsponsible to those 
who elected me, and if God will grant me strength sufficient 
to get to the Capitol when the vote is taken I will go and 
record my vote against their instructions. I know they 
have misrepresented their constituents. 

I was much pleased with your view of the action of the 
Senate in rejecting the nomination of McClernand. I 
showed it to our Senators, who read it in my room when 
I was confined to my bed, and told them who was the 
author of it. They concurred with you, and thought it a 
clear and conclusive argument. Clay has taken ground 
against Abolition— to catch the south. 

I have Avritten to my wife I intend to go by sea to New 
Orleans. I thought it best, under the circumstances, to 
tell her the truth. You have been at sea ; assure her there 
is no danger. It will make her mind easier. 

The committee have returned from New York, and will 
report the last of this week. So soon as their report is 
printed I will send you a copy. 



252 

Foreman is appointed IT. S. District Attorney of the 
State in place of Baker. The Democratic party recom- 
mended him with great unanimity and zeal, and the Pres- 
ident knew him personally. I used all the interest I could 
for my friend, Shields, but he was marked by certain of 
our leaders, and consequently doomed. 

I have written you much more than I intended to when 
I began ; much relating to myself that cannot interest you 
a great deal. May this letter find you, and your little 
family, in the enjoyment of that greatest of human bles- 
sings, health; and may you and them long continue to 
enjoy it, and every other blessing, is my sincere prayer. 



"Washington City, Feb. 20th, 1839. 
'' * * * * ']^i^Q Committee of Investigation is still 
continuing its labors, and Avill report next w^eek. I have 
no doubt its investigation is marked with great partiality 
and feeling. I do not look for justice to the Secretary 
from it. 

"My health is still improving slowly. I am now able to 
walk out, and to ride in a carriage to the House; but can- 
not stay there any length of time. I am preparing for my 
sea voyage ; but have no idea I can safely leave here until 
about the adjournment of Congress. 

"My boys write me there has been a great revival, in 
Belleville, among the Methodists, and that Doctor Greene 
has joined the church. Gott in himmel! how puerile that 
man can act. I do not object to any man taking religion ; 
but that sudden and unreflecting mode, for a thinking, rea- 
soning man, is indeed strange. It will vanish about as it 
came. 

"I am sorry the terms of the circuit are not changed. 
What obstinacy in Breese; for he resists it certainly. It 
will, however, be better for you if you get three terms. ' ' 



253 






Charleston, S. C, March 10th, 1839. 
I arrived here on yesterday evening in rather improved 
health. We had a very pleasant passage from Baltimore 
to this city, and made the run in fine time. I was very 
much pleased with the ocean. But two days out of sight 
of land. The scene to me was novel and interesting. 'I 
will probably be here for several days before I can obtain 
passage for Havana— probably a week. The climate here 
is delightful; peach trees are in bloom, fields green, and 
everything wearing the aspect of summer, or rather, of 
spring, in Illinois. 

"This is a beautifvil city; the port filled with vessels, 
Avharves lined with cotton bales and sailors, the streets 
filled with carriages, well dressed males and females and 
lots of ragged negroes. 

' ' These southern people are very ready to sustain ]\Iaine ; 
and they eulogize Mr. Van Bnren for the manner in which 
he has treated that difficulty. On the whole, the admin- 
istration is popular in this State with the people. 

"I am verv anxious to hear from home. The farther 
I wander from Illinois the more impatient I get. It is 
probable I will be in New Orleans by the first of April. I 
have no idea of reaching there before. I Avill write you in 
a few days more fully should I be detained here, as I expect 
to be. 

"By this time I suppose the Legislature of our State 
has adjourned. I am very anxious to hear who they have 
made Commissioner in place of Kinney, if Breese. In that 
case, who is our circuit judge? My impression is that our 
system of internal improvements cannot go on very rapidly. 
It is said on this side of the mountains that our State bonds 
are in bad odor in the London stock market, and much 
difficulty will be met to obtain further sales. 

"Will you be pleased to give my respects to Mr. Shields. 
I wish he was here to enjoy the fine wine, and irresistable 
smiles of the fine ladies, and generous people of the south. 



254 

I have met here wdth unbounded hospitality and attention. 
I traveled here with Hon. John C. Calhoun, Avho has been 
very kind to me, introducing me to many of the wealthy 
and distinguished families of this southern metropolis." 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Hon. R. M. Young- and Gov. Reynolds appointed special Commis- 
sioners to sell State bonds in Europe — Their Failure —Extra 
Session of the Legislature — Total Collapse of the Internal Im- 
provement scheme — State indebtedness — Incident on a Wiggins 
Ferry boat — Mr. Snyder a candidate for State Senator — Nomina- 
tions of Harrison and Van Buren for President. 

Gov. Carlin found the State 's credit had been too severely 
strained in the eastern money markets of this country to 
enable him to float the new loan of $4,000,000 for the Canal 
at par, and was persuaded to offer it to the money changers 
of Europe. 

Gov. Reynolds having failed to become a railroad mag- 
nate after building the first railroad in Illinois, and life 
without an office being to him intolerable, again ran for 
Congress and was elected. As the Congress to which he 
was elected would not convene until the first Monday in 
December, 1839, sixteen months after his election, he con- 
cluded to visit Vandalia during the last session of the Leg- 
islature to be held there, and to see his old Ranger comrade, 
Carlin, inaugurated Governor; and also see, incidentally, 
if anything might turn up there to his advantage. He 
remained in Vandalia the greater part of the winter, and 
succeeded in turning something up. He had long desired to 
visit Europe, and that desire was shared by the stylish 
lady he had married two and a half years before. 

Strong ties of fellow-feeling bound Carlin and Reynolds 
to each other. They were both of Irish parentage; both 
were early pioneers, thrown together when young in the 
rough campaigning of the ranging service; always after- 
wards in concert politically; and both had, by their inate 
force and genius, worked their way up from poverty and 
obscurity to wealth and the highest position in the State, 
Carlin placed a high estimate upon the abilities of R^ey- 
nolds, and regarded him as in the front ranks of Illinois 



256 

statesmen. With such relations existing between them, 
Reynolds had little difficulty in persuading Gov. Carlin to 
seek a foreigm market for his State loan, and to select him 
(Reynolds) as the Commissioner to negotiate it. 

Of all public men in Illinois, Gov. Reynolds was perhaps 
the least qualified— the most destitute of financial tact and 
skill — for such a difficult and delicate mission. And, after 
securing his junketing trip at public expense, conscious of 
his incapacity to deal successfully with the sharpest finan- 
ciers of the world, he asked Gov. Carlin to associate with 
him, in that work, Senator R. M. Young, to which the Gov- 
ernor acceded. Senator Young, a profound lawyer and 
jurist, as a diplomatist or financier, was very little, if any, 
the superior of Reynolds. 

They proceeded to New York City, and there met Mr. 
Rawlings, one of the Illinois Fund Commissioners, and to- 
gether they sold, and delivered, to Delafield, of New York, 
on April 23d, 1839, 300 State bonds of $1,000 each, at 
par, agreeing to pay at New York and Philadelphia, interest 
on the bonds, semi-annually, at the rate of six per cent, 
though the law specified only annual payments of interest. 
The payments by Delafield for the bonds he purchased were 
to be made in installments, the first $50,000, in fifteen days, 
to the New York Banking Company subject to sight drafts 
of the Illinois Board of Public AA^orks, of forty different in- 
stallments. The next payment of $50,000 to be made Aug- 
ust 1st, 1839, in notes of New York City banks of denomina- 
tions not to exceed $10 ; and in like manner the remainder 
in monthly payments of $50,000 commencing on the 1st of 
October. No security on the deferred payments was asked, 
or given, though the law specified that the bonds should be 
sold for cash. 

They also sold to Thomas Dunlap 1,000 bonds of $1,000 
each, bearing six per cent interest, at par, principal and 
interest payable in English funds, in London, for which was' 
received \dthin the next ten months, in England, notes of 
the United States Bank, depreciated ten per cent, and 



257 

further discounted on exchange of funds, incurring alto- 
gether a loss of $200,000. The Illinois bonds thus disposed 
of in New York formed the basis for several "wild cat" 
banks in the State of New York, whose issue was paid to 
the Board of Public Works for the bonds; "Illinois mean- 
while paying interest for the privilege of furnishing their 
bonded capital." Those wild cat banks all failed, and 
their notes received by Illinois were a total loss. Other 
bonds of the State were sold on credit contrary to law, and 
others were left on deposit for sale at various places. 

Gov. Reynolds and wife, and Col. Oakley and Gen'l 
Rawlings, two of the Illinois Fund Commissioners, then 
crossed the ocean to London where they were joined by 
the other special commissioner, Senator Young. The spec- 
ial and Fund Commissioners— specifically required, by the 
law giving them authority to act, to be "experienced and 
skilled in finance"— on Oct. 30th, 1839, deposited with John 
Wright & Co., Brokers in London, 1,000 Illinois State 
bonds of $1,000 each, and empowered them to sell the same 
at a discount not greater than nine per cent. Upon those 
bonds Wright & Co. advanced $150,000; and subsequently 
sold about half of them, and then failed with the proceeds 
of the sales in their hands as assets. The unsold bonds 
were in time returned to the State. After a long time the 
State of Illinois received a few shillings on the pound ster- 
ling for the bonds sold by the bankrupt brokers. This bril- 
liant stroke of financiering by the four commissioners re- 
sulted in a clear loss to the State of over half a million 
of dollars. 

To the credit of Gov. Reynolds and Judge Young, how- 
ever, it must be stated that their responsibility for such 
ruinous blundering was only technical. They had wheed- 
led Gov. Carlin into sending them to Europe on a pleasure 
trip at public expense ; and while the two Fund Commis- 
sioners went along to sell the bonds, they, the special jun- 
keting Commissioners, with their wives, visited points of 
interest in England, then crossed the channel and viewed 
-17 



258 

the sights in Paris, Brussels, and other continental cities, 
and returned home at their leisure. 

Mr. Snyder was entertained with courtly hospitality 
for several days, by Senator Calhoun, at his city home in 
Charleston ; and Avas pressed by his distinguished host to 
accompany him to Fort Hill in Pickens County, his moun- 
tain home in the Avestern part of the State, but declined and 
continued his voyage southward at the first opportunity. Ho 
visited Havana, in Cuba; but menaced there by yellow fever, 
and oppressed by excessive heat of the climate, he did not 
remain long, and proceeded to New Orleans. Resting there 
a few weeks he ascended the Mississippi by boat, and ar- 
rived at Belleville early in June with health somewhat 
improved. His dwelling house, commenced in 1837 and 
completed in the fall of 1839, was, then, the finest resi- 
dence in the county. In Baltimore and Philadelphia he had 
purchased all necessary furniture, carpets, curtains, etc^ 
of the latest and most fashionable styles, and a profusion 
of table ware, including a full service of solid silver plate, 
made to his order, in the latter city, of Mexican dollars 
furnished by himself. 

With a beautiful home and happy domestic surround- 
ings ; with ample wealth, and hosts of true, devoted friends, 
and popular in all classes of society; and with his well- 
appointed law office and library almost within the shadow 
of the court house, he was admirably situated for the en- 
joyment of life, and maintaining a leading position in his 
profession. But, alas! with all those advantages and bles- 
sings, health, the main essential for full fruition of his 
hopes and aspirations, was wanting. He was a confirmed 
invalid, sustained only by his indomitable will and am- 
bition. 

On his arrival at home he Avas at once beseiged by friends 
and clients, as usual, and soon was immersed in business 
matters that sorely taxed his energies and physical powers. 
Mental exertion increased his bodily strength. He occa- 
sionally visited his town, Tamarawa, and attended some of 



259 

the courts in adjoining counties. He courted the fresh air 
and sunshine, and mingling with the people daily, felt bet- 
ter by the exercise. Late in the summer of 1839 Belleville 
was honored bv a visit from Hon. Richard M. Johnson, 
Vice-President of the United States, who was then making 
a tour of the country with the view of ascertaining Demo- 
cratic sentiment regarding his availability as the candi- 
date of that party for the Presidency in 1840. Mr. Snyder, 
who had become well acquainted with him in Washington, 
took the lead in his reception. The citizens of St. Clair 
County, regardless of party differences, accorded the dis- 
tinguished soldier and statesman a grand ovation. At his 
levee in the Neuhoff House, a large hotel but recently 
erected, the people came in numbers to pay him their re- 
spects. The reception there was followed in the evening 
by a grand ball, brilliant with glaring lights, fine music, 
and the elite and beauty of the town and its surroundings. 

That Gen'l Harrison would be the presidential candi- 
date of the Whigs at the next election was a foregone con- 
clusion. That fact rendered Col. "Dick" Johnson the 
logical candidate of the Democrats. Personally the two 
men occupied Ihe same plane; both were natives of slave 
States and friendly to the institution of slavery. Both were 
lawyers of fair ability; they had both served in Congress 
with credit; and in point of natural talents, were about 
equal, Gen'l Harrison having the advantage of some higher 
education. They had won military fame in the same war, 
Gen'l Harrison attaining higher rank; and having also- 
broader experience in administration of civil affairs. Col. 
Johnson was seriously wounded at the battle of the Thames ; 
and was accorded the credit of having, in hand to hand 
combat, slain the renowned Indian chief, Tecumseh. As; 
told in a popular ballad of that era : 

"Hope nerved his arm for a desperate blow, ' 

And Tecumseh fell prostrate before him." 

The nomination of Col. Johnson for President by the 



260 

Democratic party in 1840, would have effectually neutral- 
ized Gen'l Harrison's "gunpowder*' popularity, nullified 
the "coonskin and hard cider" demonstrations of the 
Whigs based thereon, and ensured Democratic success at 
the election beyond all doubt. Of that the Whigs were 
well aAvare. In their desperation they invaded the sanc- 
tity of Col. Johnson's home and exposed the stigma upon 
his domestic life in having married a negro woman. That 
offense against social order proved fatal to his Presidential 
aspirations and retired him to private life, from which he 
but once afterward emerged, when elected to the lower 
house of the Kentucky Legislature in 1850 ; and he died, 
in Frankfort, before expiration of his term. 

In the autumn of 1839, Mr. Snyder, accompanied by 
his wife and youngest son, visited Kaskaskia, stopping 
for a dav, on the route, at Waterloo, the countv seat of 
Monroe County, where John D. Whiteside . the State Treas- 
urer, ex-Senator James, Dr. William H. Bissell, and sev- 
eral other prominent citizens of that county called upon 
him, apparently much pleased to see him. At Kaskaskia 
he was royally entertained for four or five days by his 
many friends there, with every manifestation of sincere 
regard and 'respect. Among other attentions paid him 
was a grand, formal reception in his honor tendered him 
by Judge Nathaniel Pope at his spacious mansion, includ- 
ing, as then customary, a ball graced by the presence of 
the venerable Pierre Menard and wife, and all the society 
people of the old town and vicinity. Returning home, the 
first afternoon and night were passed at Prairie du Rocher. 
Next morning a Visit was paid to the ruins of Fort Chart- 
res, four miles westward; then Prairie du Pont and Ca- 
hokia were reached the same evening. In those old French 
hamlets where Mr. Snyder and wife commenced together 
the active struggle of life, and were so well known and 
highly esteemed, their reception was exuberantly cordial. 
Three days were passed there in pleasant intercourse with 



261 

old friends and relatives, in feasting and social entertain- 
ments, and then they departed for their home. 

In physical condition ]\Ir. Snyder was very much better 
than in the spring, and that visit, and consultations with 
prominent political friends may have been prompted by 
latent thoughts of again offering his services to the people 
as their representative in Congress in the early spring. But 
if so, the bleak winds of winter admonished him to abandon 
that ambition, and he did. 

A few days after Mr. Snyder returned from Kaskaskia 
and Cahokia, his brother, Hiram Snyder, arrived in Belle- 
ville, having traveled all the way on horseback from his 
farm, near Connellsville, Fayette County, Pennsylvania. 
It was a joyous meeting of the two brothers, and for six 
weeks, time passed pleasantly with them, together at home, 
or in short excursions to points of interest in that part of 
Illinois, and across the Mississippi into Missouri. On the 
approach of winter they parted, never to meet again, when 
Hiram left for his home, by steamboat from St. Louis to 
Pittsburg and Brownsville, in Pennsylvania. 

The miserable failure of the special, and fund. Com- 
missioners in England, rendered the fact quite apparent 
that the State's credit was completely exhausted. The 
appalling amount of State indebtedness incurred, with no 
approach to commensurate results ; the enormous annual 
interest maturing with no resources to meet it but inevitable 
taxation, dispelled the infatuation that had seized the sup- 
porters of the internal improvement scheme, and wrought 
a sudden revulsion of their views. Confronted with the 
full magnitude of their mistake, they became as clamorous 
for abandoning the hopeless enterprises as they were at 
first for beginning them. The opinions of Gov. Carlin ex- 
pressed in his inaugural message but a short time before- 
were also radically changed, and he then shared with the 
people their alarm at the dismal prospect before them. 
With a State debt of nearly $14,000,000 resting upon a 
population of less than half a million; with State credit 



262 

so strained that its bonds had depreciated considerably be- 
low par, and annual revenues of the State amounting 
to only $200,000, the Governor saAV, with the people, that 
to persist in the course then pursued the indebtedness of 
the State would speedily reach the incredible total of 
$21,746,444, bearing annual interest aggregating $1,310,776, 
and concluded it was time to stop the wild rush to certain 
ruin. Accordingly, he issued a proclamation to the Legis- 
lature to meet in extra session, at Springfield, on the 9th 
day of December, 1839, to devise means for extricating 
the State from its perilous situation. 

The new State house was not yet completed, and two 
church buildings were secured for use of the general assem- 
bly; the House meeting in the newly erected Second Pres- 
byterian church, and the Senate in that of the Methodists, 
while the Supreme Court occupied the Protestant Episco- 
pal building. In his message to the Legislature Gov. Oar- 
lin reviewed past internal improvement legislation that 
provided for constructing nearly 1,300 miles of railroads, 
and improvement of several rivers; the burdensome debt 
contracted to carry out that system of public works; the 
great sum to be raised annually to pay interest on that 
debt ; the meagre amount of State revenues to meet that 
demand, and the little so far accomplished to show for the 
vast sums already expended. To continue the work, he 
thought, would involve the State in ruin and dishonor, and 
he urged the law makers' to enact such measures as, in their 
wisdom, might save the State from bankruptcy and degra- 
dation. 

That manly appeal was addressed to a Legislature com- 
posed mainly of men who had originated the system of 
internal improvements and the debt to construct it; and 
Avho had, only a year before, voted to continue the work 
at ^n additional expenditure of nearly a million of dol- 
lars. But they then came together fresh from their con- 
stituents, and knew the trend of public sentiment upon 
that question. They were no longer for expansion and 



263 

inflation ; but decidedly for ' ' retrenchment and reform in 
public expenditures." Repentent and humiliated, they 
earnestly set about enacting reforms that virtually abro- 
gated the entire system. By provisions of two bills passed 
in February, 1840, the Board of Fund Commissioners, and 
Board of Public Works were abolished, and in their stead, 
one Commissioner was retained to perform the same du- 
ties as were before required of the two Boards, excepting 
that he was prohibited from selling State bonds, or bor- 
rowing money for the State. He was required to take 
charge of the railroad iron purchased in England and pay 
the duties on it ; to receive back all unsold bonds and can- 
cel and burn them; to audit and settle accounts of the 
two late Boards, and bring suits, in the Sangamon county 
Circuit Court, against each of the members found in ar- 
rears.* 

They then created a new Board of Public Works com- 
posed of three, instead of seven, members, whose duty it 
was to adjust and settle all liabilities contracted for the 
internal improvement system; to discharge all agents and 
engineers whose services were not indispensable, and to 
secure and operate such roads, or parts of roads, then 
completed. Work on all public improvements, excepting 
the canal, was ordered to be immediately suspended, also 
excepting that part of the Northern Cross road from Mere- 
dosia to Springfield, 51 miles in length, reported to be 
almost finished. That section of the Great Northern Cross 
railroad was subsequently completed at the additional cost 
of $100,000, obtained from the sales of canal bonds, and was 
turned over to the State by the contractors on the 13th of 
May, 1842. The first eight miles of its track was laid 
in 1838, and on it was placed, on the 8th of November, 
1838, the first locomotive ever seen in Illinois — or, indeed, 

* Ex-Lieut. Governor William Kinney, President of the Board of 
Public Works, was a severe sufferer by the latter provision of that 
reform law. Suits were instituted against him for arrears of public 
funds confidingly entrusted to irresponsible friends, followed by 
years of litigation that finally swept away much of his valuable 
estate. \ 



264 

west of the Allegheny mountains.* The road completed 
to Springfield transported freight only, and its revenues 
were not sufficient to keep it in repair. Its one locomo- 
tive, weighing about a ton, having soon jumped the track 
and buried itself in the mud, was abandoned and mules 
were substituted as the motive power. After further fruit- 
less attempts to make the road self-sustaining it was aban- 
doned, and, by an act of the Legislature passed in 1847, 
it was sold at public auction and bought by Nicholas H. 
Ridgely, of Springfield, for the sum of $21,000. 

The extra, or special, session of the Legislature ad- 
journed on the 3d of February, 1840, having wrought com- 
plete collapse of the grand scheme of public works author- 
ized three vears before, leaving the State Avith an in- 
eubus of intrest-bearing indebtedness amounting to $17,- 
615,765. The assets of the State were 42,000 acres of 
land purchased by sale of its bonds ; 230,467 acres of that 
donated by the general government to aid construction of 
the canal, including 3,491 lots in Chicago, Ottawa and 
other towns along the canal, and 210,000 acres of land, 
obtained the next year, by a general distribution of public 
lands authorized by Congress. Besides that real estate the 
State had a lot of railroad strap iron purchased in Europe, 
the Illinois and Michigan canal more than half completed, 
and several unfinished sections of roadbed practically of 
no value. The banks had suspended and were unable to 
redeem their notes. The people were unwilling and really 
not financially able to pay higher taxes, and Avere largely 
indebted to local merchants, and they to the banks and 
eastern dealers. Great shrinkage in values of almost ev- 
ery description of property followed Avith little or no de- 
mand for it at any price. Many of the new towns that 
sprung up like April mushrooms were deserted, sold for 
taxes and lapsed into commons or farms. Fictitious pros- 

* Only twelve years before (1826) the first railroad in the United 
States was constructed, connecting Albany and Schnectady, in the 
State of New York. 



265 

perity vanished like the morning mist, and was replaced 
by an era of pinching hard* times. 

The progress of the canal was measureably unaffected by 
the general wreck as it was independent of State credit, 
at least until the bounty of Congress was exhausted. Be- 
cause it was favored by the general government and was 
the only public work in the State destined to be soon com- 
pleted; and also because its location and prospective ben- 
efits were sectional, it became an object of envy and jeal- 
ousy on the part of other portions of the State, particular- 
ly some of the southern counties. 

In consequence of distressing reactions in property val- 
ues and in all branches of business, ]Mr. Snyder suffered, 
in common with others, some financial reverses. His loss- 
es, however, Avere not so serious as to aft'ect his domestic 
establishment, or compel him to curtail his ordinary style 
of living. The winter of 1839- '40 was mild and not se- 
verely unpleasant. In full suits of finely dressed buck- 
skin, or chamois, underwear, and careful avoidance of 
exposure to sudden changes of temperature, he escaped 
pulmonary hemorrhages and emerged from his winter 
quarters in the spring fully as well as in the preceding fall, 
and feeling greatly encouraged. He resumed his business 
pursiiits with his old time zest and energy. The usual hos- 
pitality of his home was unchanged, and politicians, Ger- 
man land buyers, clients and friends were his almost daily 
visitors. In pleasant weather with dry roads, the family 
carriage was in frequent requisition for exercise, or excur- 
sions to certain real estate interests in different parts of the 
county. He often visited St. Louis accompanied by his 
A\afe and one, or all three, of his boys. Leaving Belleville 
early in the morning the fourteen miles to Illinoistown 
(now East St. Louis) were traveled by 8 o'clock, and the 
horses and carriage left at the livery stable there. Then 
crossing the Mississippi by the Wiggins ferry the day was 
passed with interest in the city, in shopping, sight-seeing 
or calling upon friends and relatives, until late in the af- 



266 

ternoon, when the return home was made by twilight. Oc- 
casionally the night was passed in the city to see some at- 
tractive play at the old Ludlow & Smith theater, or to at- 
tend a social entertainment to which they were previously 
invited. 

The Wiggins ferry at that time employed two powerful 
steam ferry boats constantly crossing the river, and pass- 
in o^ each other in midstream below the end of Blood v Island 
from early dawn until after nightfall. One of the boats 
was for many years in charge of Capt. John Trendley, a 
native of Germany, of kind, friendly disposition and jovial 
good humor, and very popular with the traveling public 
generally. The other boat was usually conducted by Mr. 
Sam Wiggins, one of the original proprietors of the ferry 
and perhaps the largest stockholder in the company then 
controlling it. He was an exacting, stern man of few 
words and close business habits, who guarded well the in- 
terests of the monopoly he represented. His duty Avas col- 
lecting ferriage tolls, which he did by passing over the 
main deck crowded with conveyances of all kinds and often 
with droves of cattle and other live stock, then among the 
passengers in the cabin upstairs, and extending to each 
person — footmen, teamster, emigrant and drover — his hand 
with thumb and forefinger rubbing together, a motion that 
all understood, though no word Avas spoken, to mean a de- 
mand for the transit fare. That movement of the fingers 
became such a fixed habit Avith ]\tr. Wiggins that he con- 
tinued it automatically, after his retirement from the 
ferry, when, a feeble paralytic, shuffling along the streets 
of the city. 

One bright, sunny spring morning, ]\Ir. Snyder and fam- 
ily, with a number of others, were on Mr. Wiggins' boat 
crossing the river to St. Louis, and, as usual in pleasant 
weather, he was standing with several friends and ac- 
quaintances, on the cabin deck that overlooked the main 
deck of the boat and the river, enjoying the view of the 
city front and many other attractive objects on either shore 



267 

to be seen from an elevated position. The boat had left 
the wharf on the Illinois side on its voyage, then of a mile 
or more, to the St. Louis landing. Mr. Wiggins was busy 
below among the numerous wagons and teams collecting 
ferriage, when he came to one of the dilapidated, poverty- 
stricken outfits frequently seen in those times on the em- 
igant roads of Illinois. It was a rickety cart drawn by 
a. lean, broken-down horse, with old, worn-out harness 
patched up with strings and ropes. The bows overarching 
the cart bed were covered with a ragged old quilt, and in 
the cart with a few cooking utensils, upon a pile of travel- 
stained, dirty bedding, were three small half-naked child- 
ren, one of whom then had a raging fever. Near the 
old horse were standing two older children and their pa- 
rents ; all sallow, emaciated, barefooted and but half clad. 
The woman's faded calico dress and sunbonnet constituted 
all her visible apparel, but she had on her arm, suspended 
by the string attaching them together, a pair of new 
shoes that some benevolent person in Illinoistown had just 
given to her. 

When Mr. Wiggins approached that forlorn group and 
intimated by his mute but eloquent sign language that 
ferriage must be paid the angueish-looldng head of the 
family plaintively stated that he "hadn't a cent in the 
world;" that they had all been sick for months in the 
Wabash bottom, where they had tried to live, and were 
now attempting to get to relatives in the Ozark country in 
search of health and subsistence. That, however, did not 
satisfy Mr. Wiggins. He had heard such stories, he said, 
many times before, and declared he could not maintain m 
ferry for improvident people traveling to and fro who 
paid nothing. He then took the woman's new shoes, tell- 
ing her he would keep them until their ferriage was paid, 
and hanging tihem over his arm passed on to collect fare 
from others. 

The assemblage overhead on the cabin deck saw and 
overheard what transpired below, and Mr. Snyder, ex- 



268 

pressing in very plain and forceful language his opinion 
of Mr. Wiggins' heartless act, took oft' his hat and drop- 
ping into it a silver dollar, passed it around among those 
in and about the cabin— to nearly all of whom he was well 
known— briefly explaining what had occurred on the main 
deck to those who had not witnessed it, and few, if any, de- 
clined to add their contributions. Going below he made 
his Avay to Mr. Wiggins, paid him the amount due from 
the poor wayfarers, and handing the woman her shoes, 
emptied the contents of his hat, amounting to several dol- 
lars, into her sunbonnet which she held out to receive it. 

AVhen satisfied that the wretched travelers were really 
destitute, and not imposters, Mr. Wiggins would, doubtless, 
on reaching the St. Louis landing, have restored the wo- 
man's property. In justice to him it must be stated that 
t?ie ferry had no gate system at their wharves for collect- 
ing ferriage in advance, and that, almost daily, shiftless, 
worthless, and often, dishonest people moving from place 
to place in quest of an imaginary paradise, or fleeing from 
justice by passing from one State to another, were patrons 
of the ferry, and once on the boats and under way could 
not be ejected for non-payment. They imposed upon the 
ferry managers beyond endurance, always offering pitiful 
pleas of misfortune, sickness and poverty, and became 
such a nuisance that stringent measures had to be adopted 
to suppress them. 

The Whigs were slow in adopting the convention system. 
In Illinois they held their first State convention at Spring- 
field, on the 7th day of October, 1839, to select delegates 
to represent the State in their national convention that 
met in Harrisburg, Pa., on the 4th of the following Decem- 
ber. There Genl. William Henry Harrison, of Ohio, was 
nominated for President, and John Tyler, of Virginia, for 
Vice President. The national Whig platform of princi- 
ples there announced was, simply, opposition to the Dem- 
ocratic party. 

By, or before, adjournment of the special session of the 



269 

Legislature of Feb. 3d, 1840, the political campaign, des- 
tined to be the most fiercely contested of any in the previ- 
ous history of the country, was fairly commenced in Illin- 
ois. The Whigs were united and well organized, felt con- 
fident of success, and aggressively charged the administra- 
tions in power, both State and national, with responsibility 
for all the disasters and calamities experienced by the 
nation and States, including droughts and overflows, crop 
failures, bank suspensions and hard times ; but were dis- 
cretely silent on internal improvement failures. 

Undisputably, times were hard, and as usual when such 
is the case, the people were restless, discontented, and eager 
for a change in public affairs of any kind that possibly 
might ameliorate their condition. In Illinois, the Whigs 
having had control of the last Legislature, and being as 
deeply in the internal improvement mire as the Democrats, 
ignored all questions of State policy and made their cam- 
paign altogether on national issues, and the military 
achievements of Genl. Harrison. 

Gov. Reynolds was again "in the hands of his friends," 
and by common consent of the Democracy of the First dis- 
trict, w^as their candidate for Congress. 

As Mr. Snyder's health improved somewhat with ad- 
vance of milder weather, his party refused its sanction to 
his self-imposed retirement from active participation in 
politics, and, without consulting him, he was selected by 
the Democratic State convention, in April, for Presidential 
elector for his district.* When, in 1836, he was a candidate 
for Congress, Esq. John IMurray, a Whig, was elected his 
successor in the State Senate from St. Clair county, de- 
feating A¥illiam Anderson Beaird, a Democrat, who was 
Sheriff of the county from 1819 to 1830, but by delinquen- 
cy in the final settlement of his accounts and dissipation, 
had lost his former popularity. As it would devolve upon 
the Legislature chosen in 1840 to elect a United States Sen- 

* The "Whig- Presidential elector for the same district was Hon. 
Samuel D. Marshall, of Shawneetown. 



270 

ator to succeed Hon. John M. Robinson, and as the Dem- 
ocrats were intent on inaugurating certain reforms in the 
State, they determined to put forth every effort to regain 
their ascendency in the General Assembly. St. Clair was 
one of the most important counties of the State to be re- 
deemed from Whig rule. Casting around for a deliverer 
there, leaders of the Democracy concluded that Mr. Sny- 
der was the most available member of their party to ensure 
success. Importuned by his political and personal friends 
to lead the forlorn hope as their candidate for State Sen- 
ator he finally reluctantly consented. He did not desire 
the position, for all the honor it conferred he had before 
received in his six years' incumbency of it; and he feared 
that his health, though temporarily improved, would be 
jeopardized by the efforts he considered it his duty to make 
to secure his election, and in the four years of further 
active service if elected. But he saw the interests of his 
party were at stake and the people who had always before 
given him their hearty support and confidence now ap- 
pealed to him to come to their assistance, he felt that he 
could not honorably resist that appeal, though it might 
demand a serious sacrifice on his part. 

The Democratic national convention met in Baltimore 
on May 4, 1840, and unanimously — but very unwisely — 
nominated Martin Van Buren for re-election to the Presi- 
dency. It laid down as the code of principles of the Dem- 
ocratic party ''hearty endorsement of those Jeff'ersonian 
doctrines which make ours the land of liberty and the 
asylum of the oppressed of every nation; non-interference 
by the general government with slavery, or other domestic 
institutions of the States; opposition to rechartering a 
National bank, and to internal improvements by the gen- 
eral government ; also, to fostering one branch of industry 
to the detriment of another as by a protective tariff; also, 
opposition to the assumption by the government of the 
debts of any state contracted for local purposes, and in 
favor of practicing the most rigid economy in administering 
the government. 




GOV. JOHN REYNOLDS 
Copi«'d From His Portrait Painted at Washington City in 1S35 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Gov. John Reynolds. 

Ill 1840, Gov. Reynolds and Adam W. Snyder were, for 
the second time, candidates for office on the same ticket— 
the one for Congress, and the other for State Senator— 
and in perfect harmony so far as related to the cardinal 
principles of their party. It is not probable that either 
specially exerted himself to secure the election of the other ; 
nor is it absolutely certain that they voted for each other ; 
but the strong, united opposition of the Whigs compelled 
them, for tthe time, to suspend personal antagonism, and 
forced an amicable concert of action for the good of their 
common cause. 

It was in the fall of that year, when Gov. Reynolds was 
about to return to Washington City, that the amusing 
incident occurred, graphically related, wdth no loss of 
coloring, by Judge Gillespie,* as follows: "Adam W. 
Snyder and Gov. Reynolds were rivals and antagonists. It 
would not be going too far to say they were in a state of 
chronic hostility to each other. Their warfare never pro- 
ceeded so far as to become violent. They were, in some 
respects, in the condition that a Kentuckian was, accord- 
ing to the account the ^Governor' used to give. He used 
to tell of a Kentuckian who was 'calaboosed' in New Or- 
leans for fighting. He said to one of his friends, who had 
called one day to condole with him, that he had made up 
his mind that if he ever got out of that infernal place, he 
would go back to Kentucky ivhere he could fight in peace. 

"Snyder and Reynolds never broke the peace, but they 
were continually fighting, politically (although they were 
both Jackson men, and professedly Democrats.) They were 
generally aspirants for the same place — always in each 

* Recollections of Early Illinois, and Her Noted Men. By Hon. 
Joseph Gillespie. Fergus & Co., Chicago, 1880, pp. 19-20. 



272 

other's way. Each one looked upon the other as being his 
'evil genius,' and neither would have regarded the remo- 
val of the other to some other country as a very great evil. 
A man named Coonce* once called upon Snyder, to take 
the necessary steps to obtain some testimony with a view 
of its perpetuation. Snyder never liked the drudgery of 
the profession, or the office business. He loved to try a 
case and address a jury, which he could do with great 
ease to himself, and splendid effect. He endeavored to 
get rid of the task upon various pretexts; but Coonce was 
very importunate, and finally Snyder sat down to Avriting, 
and asked Coonce whose testimony he wished to take. The 
latter said, 'That of Gov. Reynolds.' Snyder looked up 
in amazement, and broke out with an exclamation, that he 
never heard of such folly as to go to the expense and 
trouble to perpetuate old Reynolds' testimony. 'Wliy, d— n 
him,' said he, ^he will never die. I have been waiting for 
him to 'kick the bucket' for more than a quarter of a 
century, and his hold on life seems now to be stronger 
than it was when I first knew him; he will live forever, 

sir. I will not make a d n fool of myself by seeking 

to perpetuate the testimony of a man who Avill outlive any 
record in existence." 

A pen picture of Gov. Re^^nolds, accurately portraying 
him, with his numerous peculiarities and oddities, as 
he really was, is exceedingly difficult to produce. In 
some respects he was a living paradox, a strange mix- 
ture of sense and nonsense, possessing many sterling 
traits, with some reprehensible faults. He was neith- 
er a great or specially gifted man, but nevertheless, 
an extraordinary character Avhose successful career must 
be accepted as evidence that he possessed genius of a 
certain order. There was about him none of that force, 
commonly styled "personal magnetism," so essential 
for a leader of men; nor were his powers of mind 
of that lofty or transcendent kind that command the ad- 

* Peter Kuntz. 



273 

miration and following of the multitude. But, an adept in 
the knowledge of human nature and human motives, he 
gained and held the confidence and support of the people, 
more by the exercise of consummate tact and craftiness 
than of talents of higher order. 

In stature, Gov. Reynolds was full six feet high, of stout 
build, not corpulent but large-boned and muscular, weigh- 
ing ordinarily about 190 pounds. He was somewhat round 
shouldered, with one shoulder slightly higher than the 
other, and walked deliberately, with downcast look, and 
shambling gait. His face was long, furrowed and always 
smoothly shaved, and in repose, had a benevolent and rev- 
erential expression. His forehead was high, but not 
broad; his nose straight and w^ell shaped, his eyes blueish- 
gray, and his hair, when young, darlv brown. He was al- 
ways gentlemanly in appearance and apparel, with modest 
but ungraceful manners. With neither high culture or 
refinement, claiming to be one of the humblest of the peo- 
ple, and constantly practicing the arts of electioneering — 
of which he was a perfect master — he never descended to 
masquerading in linsey hunting shirt and coonskin cap to 
gain the rabble's favor; but invariably dressed in well- 
made black clothing of fine texture with polished shoes, im- 
maculate white shirt front and high silk hat. 

As is generally known his parents were Protestant Irish. 
His father, Robert Reynolds, was born in County ]\Iono- 
hon, and his mother in the city of Dundalk, in the Emer- 
ald Isle. His mother, whose maiden name was Margaret 
Moore, is said to have been superior to her husband in 
mental vigor and intelligence. With his father and fath- 
er's family, Robert Reynolds and wife came to Philadel- 
phia in 1785, and from there moved to Montgomery county 
in Pennsylvania, where John Reynolds was born on the 
26th of February, 1788. When six months old his pa- 
rents, grandparents and entire family moved to the vi- 
cinity of Knoxville, Tennessee, and from there Robert Rey- 
nolds, wife and children migrated to Kaskaskia in the year 
-18 



274 

1800, John, then twelve years old, driving one of his fath- 
er 's two teams all the way. 

Robert Reynolds was a farmer, with some education, 
and learning. Usually he was of quiet and unobstrusive 
disposition, but when under the influence of liquor — as was 
often the case — he was irritable, boisterous and quarrel- 
some. In 1802 he was elected one of the delegates from 
Randolph county, to the convention at Vincennes, called 
by Governor Harrison to petition Congress to abrogate the 
anti-slavery clause of the Ordinance of 1787 ; and the next 
year he was elected to represent Randolph county in the 
Legislature of Indiana Territory, also convened at Vin- 
cennes. A few 3^ears thereafter the Reynolds family left 
Randolph county and located in the Goshen settlement 
at the upper end of the American Bottom, in the edge of 
]\[adison county, and there Robert Reynolds and wife re- 
mained to the close of their lives. The family of Robert 
Reynolds comprised four sons and two daughters, of whom 
John was the eldest. His brothers were James, who mar- 
ried a Miss Black and resided in Greene county; Robert^ 
Jr., who married the daughter of Capt. AYm. B. AVhite- 
side , of Randolph county, and Thomas, who married Miss 
iMcDonald in Kaskaskia. One sister, Julia, married Mr. 
Belsha and lived all her life thereafter in St. Clair county ; 
and Nancy, who became Mrs. Davis, died in Kansas in 
1880. Though socially obscure and not highly educated, 
they were respectable and worthy citizens ; but John never 
seemed to be very proud of them, and very seldom men- 
tioned their names. 

John Rej^nolds learned to read and write before coming 
to Illinois, and was the only one of the family who mani- 
fested the least desire to improve his mind and raise him- 
self above the social stratum occupied by the others. He 
worked on his father's farm and grew up to be a stout, 
athletic lad, fond of active diversions, as jumping, wrest- 
ling, foot-racing and horse racing; but, be it said to his 
credit, he was not lazy enough to enjoy fishing; nor did 



275 

he have the least fancy for do^r and gun and the brutal, 
so-called "sport" of hunting. In the Avinter season he 
attended occasional country schools, and read such books 
as he could borrow and, later, was taught by John Messen- 
ger higher arithmetic and the rudiments of land surveying. 
At the age of twenty-one, when he began to work for 
wages, a horse,, saddle and bridle, a new suit of home-spun 
and home-made jeans clothes and a few^ dollars constituted 
all his worldly possessions. 

He informed his uncle, John Reynolds, Avho still resided 
in Knox county, Tennessee, of his longing to further ex- 
tend his education, and that generous relative invited him 
to come there and make his house his home, and attend the 
' * college ' ' in that vicinity. That invitation the young 
man accepted with alacrity, and traveled to his uncle's 
farm on horseback, the greater part of the way alone. 

The ''college" he entered as a student, often proudly 
mentioned by him, was merely a select school in the coun- 
try, six miles northeast of Knoxville, conducted by Rev. 
Isaac Anderson, who constituted the entire faculty and 
''instructed a class of young men, in his college, and 
preached to his congregation every sabbath."* In the 
first of the tAvo sessions he attended at that college he tells 
us he took the following Latin course : First, after the 
grammar, was Corderi ; then Selectae Frofanis, then "a 
kind of Englished Latin," followed by Caesar's Commen- 
taries, Ovid's Metamorphosis, Virgil's Georgics and 
Aeneid, Horace's Satires and Art of Poetry, and, lastly, 
Cicero's Orations. He adds: "I finished my Latin studies 
with great celerity; but I often revised them afterwards 
at the college and taught classes in that language, so that, 
when I left the college, I was a good Latin scholar. ' ' 

In the second session he "learned English grammar, 
Euclid's Elements of Geometry, commenced the study of 
the sciences and literature and studied geography and his- 
tory carefully. I also read with care rhetoric and logic." 

* Reynolds' Life and Times, first edition, p. n2. 



276 

He says he also "studied Dr. Paley's moral philosophy, 
astronomy and the science of chemistry in connection with 
natural philosophy. ' '* 

He then read law with a lawyer named Campbell, in 
Knoxville, for a few months, when his health gave way, 
with night sweats, spitting blood, cough, and other symp- 
toms of a serious pulmonary disease. His race horse died, 
and he remarks: "I possessed then nothing on earth save 
some few clothes and the commencement of the consump- 
tion. " His uncle furnished him another horse and he re- 
turned to Illinois, Avhere he soon regained his health; and, 
until his last final illness in 1865 was perhaps never con- 
fined to his bed a day on account of sickness, f He visited 
Knoxville again in 1812 and resumed his law studies with 
Mr. Campbell. Returning to Illinois in August of that 
year he at once enlisted in Capt. Judy's company for three 
months' service in guarding the settlements. 

His ''classic" education, of which he so much boasted in 
later years, really amounted to no more than the merest 
smattering of some of the higher branches taught by Mr. 
Anderson. Of algebra, astronomy and chemistry he knew 
absolutely nothing. Of English grammar he had learned 
Aery little; and never understood the first principles of 
rhetoric or logic. He possessed some natural talent for 
mathematics, and had progressed in the study of geometry 
as far as to memorize the demonstration of Euclid's fifth 
proposition. If he learned any Latin in Tennessee it was 
i)\l forgotten when he got back to Illinois, as he was then 
profoundly ignorant of the simplest rudiments of that 

* The Governor wrote that account of his splendid collegiate edu- 
cation when 67 years old; 44 years after he left "college." 

T When the volunteers were joined by Gen'l Gaines and his U. S. 
regulars, in a steamboat, eight miles below the mouth of Rock 
river, in June, 1831, and an attack upon Black Hawk, who was camped 
with his warriors in his old village, was planned for early next 
morning. Gov. Reynolds, who had accompanied "the boys" as Com- 
mander-in-chief, was suddenly taken sick and went aboard the boat 
where he remained until it was discovered that the Indians had fled, 
and then he as suddenly recovered. Not only in coarse jest, but in 
serious earnestness, he was charged with cowardice, and few doubted 
that his sickness was feigned to evade the expected battle. 



277 

language, and never could comprehend the conjugation of 
a Latin verb, or translate a dozen Latin words. In after 
life, to bolster up his pretentions of Latin learning, he 
read English translations of Caesar's Commentaries, Vir- 
gil, Cicero's Orations and other authors he claimed to have 
studied at "college," and his faithful memory drew upon 
them as occasion required. 

His memory was wonderfully retentive to the last days 
of his life; never forgetting faces, names or dates. His 
habits of thought were without method or order; and his 
ideas, jumbled and disconnected, as was sho\^^l in his con- 
versation and speeches, and is seen in all his writings. He 
was well informed and knew something of a great variety 
of subjects, but his knowledge of very few of them was 
clear, thorough and comprehensive. In his intercourse 
with the people he feigned ignorance not for popular ef- 
fect, as some of his biographers assert, but to conceal his 
real ignorance and mask his vanity and self esteem. 

The Illinois settlements were in very little danger of 
being drawn into the vortex of war waged with England 
in 1812, but great apprehensions were felt of Indian hos- 
tilities, incited by the English on the northern frontier, 
which at that date was some distance south of the Sanga- 
mon river. When Capt. Judy's company was mustered 
out of service Reynolds joined the company of Capt. Wm, 
B. Whiteside , employed in "ranging," or patrolling, the 
border to awe the unfriendly Indians, and protect exposed 
settlers from their threatened incursions. While in that 
service he assisted in cutting and hauling the logs for 
building Fort Clark at the lower point of Peoria lake. It 
was that ranging service that gave him, in later years, the 
sobriquet of the "Old Ranger," of which he was very 
proud, and which he utilized to the best possible advantage 
ill his many electioneering campaigns for office. But ho 
was not a warrior and in all his military service seldom 
fired his gun, and never once at the enemy. He had none 
of the martial or cavalier spirit and was, in fact, destitute 



278 

of moral and physical courage; never being known to re- 
sent an insult or affront, excepting with sarcasm or ridi- 
cule. After the Black Hawk war he was often unmerci- 
fully jeered by returned volunteers, who jocularly told— 
doubtless with little, or no, regard for exact truth— how 
he crawled into, or under, wagons; or otherwise sought 
safety, upon every Indian alarm; plainly indicating in 
their rude jokes that he had not distinguished himself for 
bravery or daring in that campaign. 

The insatiable itching for office that characterized his 
life began with his enlistment in the ranging service. He 
soon obtained the office of sergeant, and before expiration 
of the vear secured from Gov. Edwards the non-combat- 
ant's position of Judge Advocate which suited him far 
better than hunting for hostile Indians. 

In 1814 he commenced the practice of law in Cahokia, 
residing there with his cousin, Joseph A. Beaird, a prom- 
inent and wealthv citizen of the old town, with whom he 
engaged in buying and selling real estate and property of 
all kinds. His legal talents Avere in very little demand, but 
he was industrious and thrifty, and when not trading did 
seme land surveying for the settlers. During that period, 
he says, he bought and sold two dry goods stores valued at 
$10,000. He also bought slaves, as appears from an ad- 
vertisement in the Missouri Gazette of May 25, 1816, in 
which he offered fifty 'dollars ' reward for the apprehension 
of ''a negro boy named Moses," who ran away from him 
at Cahokia two months before. 

To increase his professional business, or prompted by ex- 
cessive benevolence— but much more probably to gain pop- 
ularity — he advertised, in the Illinois Herald of Kaskaskia 
on Dec. 16, 1816, as follows: 
''To the Poor People of Illinois and Missouri Territories: 

' ' To the above class of mankind whose pecuniary circum- 
stances will not admit of feeing a lawyer, I tender my pro- 
fessional services as a lawyer, in all courts I may practice 
in, without fee or reward. John Reynolds. 



yy 



279 

As a lawyer he never ranked above mediocrit.y and did 
not rely upon his profession for revenue; his services in 
the courts being largely for the poor and for political 
friends neither able or willing' to pay respectable fees. His 
chief source of income and profit, was traffic in lands which 
he manaojed with shrewd discernment and success. He 
was not avaricious or grasping, but always careful of his 
own interests and a close economist even to the verge of 
parsimony. He was too much engrossed in public life to 
be a money maker, and his wealth never exceeded a re- 
speptable competency. For onh^ two objects or purposes, 
he ever displayed liberality in the expenditure of mpney; 
the one was for the care and comfort of himself and house- 
hold; the other was for electioneering. He had unlimited 
faith in the potency of printer's ink, and paid generously 
for press subsidies, and for printing his numerous speeches, 
political circulars and letters to the people. 

He abhorred whiskey and whiskey drinking, yet stifled 
his conscience and expended money freely, though grudg- 
ingly, for subsidizing dram shops and for liquors to influ- 
ence whiskey drinkers to vote for him. 

He knew nothing of card playing or games of any kind. 
The only species of gambling he ever indulged in was lim- 
ited betting on horse and foot races when a young man. 

In 1817, then twenty-nine years of age, he married a 
beautiful Creole lady, a year younger than himself, who 
had twice before been led to the hymenial altar. Her 
maiden name was Catharine Dubuque— then known as the 
widow Manegle — a daughter of Julien Du])uque, a Cana- 
dian by birth, and noted Indian trader, in whose honor the 
town of Dubuque in Iowa, w^as named. She was born in 
Cahokia, in 1789 and was first married to Michael La 
Croix, also an Indian trader and native of Canada, and for 
some time a resident of Peoria. Of that union two child- 
ren were born, a son and daughter. About the beginnug 
of the war of 1812 La Croix left his family and went to 
Canada, as he said, to purchase goods ; and for three years 



280 

nothing was heard from him directly. Mrs. La Croix said 
she heard in 1814 that he was dead, and, in the spring of 
1815 she married another Canadian Frenchman named 
Joseph Manegle, who had a young daughter, Marie, by a 
previous marriage. A few months after that marriage, the 
war having closed. La Croix— Enoch Arden-like— reap- 
peared in Cahokia. He said that arriving in Canada about 
the commencement of hostilities he was "pressed" into the 
English military service, in which he rose to the rank of 
Lieutenant. He said he had frequently written to his wife, 
but some designing person had intercepted his letters. Gov. 
Keynolds states that Mr. La Croix, on his return to Caho- 
kia, in 1815, was naturalized. 

Joseph Manegle died about a year after his marriage 
with Mrs. La Croix. She did not rejoin her first husband* 
— the British patriot — who returned about that time; but 
early in 1817 married John Reynolds. Mr. La Croix re- 
mained about Cahokia until his death, in 1821. Gov. Rev- 
uolds says: "He was much regretted by his family and 
acquaintances," and adds: "He was a man of sound mind 
and great energy and had received a liberal education."! 

After his marriage Reynolds took his bride, with her 
two children and the child IManegle left, to the fine farm 
he owned on the eastern outskirts of Cahokia, and there 

* The following is from Niles' Register, vol. 8, p. 263, July 10th, 1815: 
"Traitors: The undernamed gentry were residents within this and 
the neighboring territories previous to the war, and always claimed 
the rights o(f citizens of the United States; but as soon as war was 
declared, they to a man took part against us. and were active in 
the British interests in different parts of the Indian country; Robert 
Dickson, James Aird, Duncan Graham, Francois Boutillier, Edward 
La Gouthrie, Bichois of Prairie du Chien, Jacob Franks, the brothers 
Griegneaus, of Green Bay, Joseph and Michael Le Croix and Lasaillier 
of Milwaukee, Joseph Bailey and his cousin, Louis Buisson, Louis 
Benet, formerly of Peoria." 

It was not strictly just to thus stigmatize those men as "traitors." 
They were not citizens of the United States but of Canada. True, they 
had come into the wild, sparsely-settled western territories of the 
United States, where most of them had engaged in business and 
married; but they had not severed their allegiance to the British 
crown. When their country became involved in war, as true patriots, 
they regarded it their duty to return to her aid. The war over. 
Mr. La Croix having, as he conceived it, discharged his duty to the land 
of his birth, concluded to renounce further obligations to its gov- 
ernment, and thereupon returned to Cahokia and became a natural- 
ized and loyal citizen of the United States. 

t Pioneer History of Illinios. First edition, p. 350. 



281 

resided until their removal to Belleville, in 1831. Mre. 
Keynolds was a graceful, charming woman, possessing 
many noble qualities of heart and mind. She was a Cath- 
olic, of course, with very limited education, and little if 
any, knowledge of the English language. She died in 
Belleville on the 5th of November, 1834, and was buried in 
Cahokia. 

Reynolds had learned to speak the Creole dialect of Ca- 
hokia, and subsequently learned to read French a little; 
but not to write it. He was at that time quite prosperous 
and a man of prominence in the community, popular and 
respected by all. He was then very deeply interested in 
the movement agitated for changing the territorial form 
of government of Illinois to that of a State, and when 
the convention was called, in 1818, for framing a State 
constitution, he desired very much to take part in it as a 
delegate. But Judge Jesse B. Thomas, who always re- 
garded him as a presumptuous ignoramus, was so firmly 
intrenched in the esteem and confidence of the people of 
St. Clair county— and entire Territory— that he could 
not only command his own election as a delegate, but dic- 
tate that of his colleagues, John Messenger and James 
Lemen, Jr., also. And for so doing he incurred the im- 
placable enmity of John Reynolds for all time. 

The first State Legislature of Illinois convened at Kas- 
kaskia on the 5th of October, 1818. In his autobiography, 
Gov. Reynolds says : ' ' I had not the least intention to visit 
the seat of government at all. I cared very little who was 
elected to any office. One thing was certain, I courted 
nothing myself. My friends urged me to visit with them 
Ihe General Assembly in session at Kaskaskia, and I did 
so." Judge Scott, who knew him well, correctly remarks 
upon that assertion : ' ' The truth is, he did not have friends 
enough to keep him away."* He went there for the ex- 
press purpose of obtaining an office of some kind if possi- 

* Supreme Court of Illinois, 1818. By John M. Scott, Bloomington, 
111., 1896, p. 124. 



282 

ble, and would have accepted almost anything offered him 
from doorkeeper up. "I had been in Kaskaskia but a 
few days," he says, "when it was urged on me to know if 
1 would accept of a judgeship if I was elected. This broke 
on me like a clap of thunder. I was in truth persuaded 
to become a candidate for the office." As Judge Scott 
says : " It was then, as it is now, not very difficult for one 's 
'friends' to persuade a man to accept an office especially 
when he want's it and is trying his best to get it." It is 
known that he worked for -the office diligently, and was 
the last of the four judges elected, one of whom, William 
P. Foster, was an arrant fraud and not a lawyer at all, and 
succeeded by a small majority, receiving 22 votes of the 
40 cast. None of his old associates could ever realize the 
dignity of the position to which he M^as elevated, nor could 
he ; and no one thought of addressing him as ' ' Judge ' ' 
Reynolds; all called him "Jolui. " 

' When he found that, from the extreme scarcity of ma- 
terial at hand, there was a possibility of his election to a 
judgeship of the Supreme Court, it can well be imagined 
that "it broke on him like a clap of thunder," for it was 
a position far beyond his abilities, and above anything he 
had expected to ask for. 

In his Life arid Times he indignantly denied the cur- 
rent version of how he pronounced sentence upon the 
murderer, Greene, as related in Ford's History of Illinois, 
and elsewhere. But notwithstanding his denial, the ac- 
count was literally true, and well authenticated by re- 
sponsible persons who were present and heard it. 

His record as a judge is, at least respectable. He made 
no grave mistakes, for when intricate law questions arose 
in his court he did not hesitate to obtain— on the sly— the 
opinions of Daniel P. Cook, Elias K. Kane, AVm. Mears, 
and other competent lawyers. His written opinions when 
justice and chief justice of the Supreme Court Avere not 
numerous, very brief and quite creditable. During the 
six years of his judgeship he meddled busily and insidiously 



■ 283 

iu every political election, with the object of strengthening 
his own popularity among those on the winning side, and 
was constantly planning to secure some other office at, or 
before, the expiration of his judicial term. 

Electioneering was, with him, a fixed habit. His views 
upon public questions were shaped and guided by recog- 
nized principles only when those principles were enter- 
tained by the majority. He never led public opinion, but 
folloAved it abjectly*; and seldom expressed positive con- 
victions upon any issue or question until assured they were 
sanctioned by the majority of voters. His aspirations be- 
c.ime lofty and unflagging, and never deterred by the least 
distrust of his own ability to fill acceptably any official po- 
sition. Though occasionally defeated he was never dis- 
couraged, and his successes were marvelous. He was first 
a militia sergeant, then Judge Advocate. In 1818 his 
ambition to sit as a delegate in the constitutional convention 
A'as thwarted, but before the close of the year he was elect- 
ed a justice of the Supreme Court, and became, in time, 
Chief Justice. In 1823 he was defeated for the United 
States Senate by Jesse B. Thomas. In 1824 he failed to 
be re-elected Supreme Court justice, and the same year 
was defeated for the lower house of the Legislature. In 
1826 he was elected to the lower house of the Legislature, 
and re-elected in 1828. In 1830 he was elected Governor. 
In 1834 he was elected to Congress for a full term and an 
unexpired term. In 1836 he was defeated for Congress, 
but again elected in 1838 and also in 1840. He was de- 
feated for the nomination for Congress in the first Con- 
gressional convention held by the Democratic party in his 
district, in 1842, by Robert Smith, of Alton. That failure 
retired him to private life. His political race was run, the 
Ijeople having outgrown the pioneer sentiment, and his an- 
tiquated methods, so popular in the early backwoods set- 
tlements. His passion for office, however, was still un- 
satiated. In 1846 he was elected to the lower house of 
the Legislature by a small, majority, and in 1848 was de- 



284 . 

feated, in St. Clair comity, for the State Senate, by Col. 
J. L. D. Morrison, then a Whig, who received 1681 votes to 
1221 for Reynolds. In 1852 he was again elected a Repre- 
sentative to the Legislature, along with Wm. H. Snyder, 
son of his old adversary. In organization of the House at 
that session, as a compliment in recognition of his long 
and valuable public services, he was elected Speaker. 

In 1858 he was nominated by the anti-Douglas faction 
of the Democracy a candidate for State Superintendent of 
Public Instruction. Ex-Gov. A. C. French was nominated 
by the Douglas faction for the same position ; but they 
were both defeated by Newton Bateman, the Republican 
cfindidate, whose majority over Reynolds, however, was 
only 2143 in a total vote of 252,100. The last public ap- 
pearance of Gov. Reynolds in the political arena was in 
1860, when he was selected by the anti-Douglas Democrats 
of Illinois as one of their delegates to the national Demo- 
cratic convention at Charleston, S. C. That factional del- 
egation was excluded from the convention, and the Douglas 
delegation, of which Hon. Wm. A. Richardson was chair- 
man, was admitted. The failure of Douglas to secure the 
Presidential nomination at that convention, gave the Old 
Ranger, though debarred from active participation in it, 
unutterable satisfaction. 

In all the offices Gov. Reynolds held he acquitted himself 
with credit, discharging his public duties faithfully and 
conscientiously. He well knew his own deficiencies, and 
when dealing with important matters beyond his capacity, 
was not backward in asking the advice and assistance of 
his superiors in knowledge and experience. In his mem- 
orable contest with Kinney for the Governorship, he 
strongly advocated free trade and other Democratic doc- 
trines, but in his first message to the Legislature (which 
was evidently written. In great part, by Ex-Gov. Edwards) 
he favored a protective tariff, internal improvements by 
the general government, and other ultra AVhig measures; 
aud also the Edwards idea of State ownership of all public 



285 

lands within the State limits. On questions dividing the 
people nearly equally he was prudently silent, or non-com- 
niital ; but zealously advocated the cause of education, tem- 
perance, morality and economy in public expenses, and 
other platitudes upon which there was no diversity of 
opinion. He was seldom without a hobby of his own to 
talk about, to write in the newspapers about, and to address 
the people about in public meetings he called for that pur- 
pose. And they were always of a kind that accorded with 
prevailing public sentiment, and provoked little or no op- 
position. In the beginning of his career unstinted abuse 
of England and the English Avith laudations of the 4th 
of July and Declaration of Independence formed the staple 
of his ''principles." Then panegyrics of Genl. Jackson, 
and later, the annexation of Texas. His next theme was 
the Oregon boundary question, with furious insistence 
upon ''fifty- four forty or fight," from which he switched 
off on the war with Mexico, and finally made the acquisi- 
tion of Cuba the paramount object of our national life. 

On the stump, or rostrum, his appearance was neither 
commanding or graceful. His gestures when speaking 
were few and awkward, confined to a pump-handle motion 
of the arm, and a peculiar ducking down of the head to 
emphasize his sentences. He was voluble without the 
slightest approach to eloquence, and spoke in earnest but 
incoherent, conversational strain. His speeches were 
rambling and disconnected, but attractive because of his 
original phraseology and witty, spicy illustrations. His 
best and most numerous anecdotes, however — as those of 
Lincoln and Jo Gillespie — could not be told in the presence 
of ladies or admitted in public print. His grotesque semi- 
comic discourses always drew audiences, a majority of 
whom attended for amusem.ent, rather than interest in 
what he had to say. 

In his case the laws of heredity were singularly at fault; 
as he inherited from his Irish parents but two or three 
Celtic traits. Those were wit, blarney and business honor. 



286 

In financial matters he was scrupulously honest and 
through all the public stations he held not a charge of 
official corruption was ever sustained against him. He 
was totally devoid of Irish pugnacity and of Irish mirth- 
fulness. There was no music at all in his composition; 
he could neither sing or whistle a note, nor distinguish 
one tune from another. Nor could he dance— probably 
never tried to— though associated all his life Adth jovial, 
dancing people. He strangely failed, also, to inherit Irish 
fondness of whiskey;* and, although he paid for quanti- 
ties of it and carried liquors about with him when election- 
eering, he never tasted it, or ever used tobacco in any 
form. He had nothing of the military spirit of the Irish. 
As Comjuander-in-chief of the Illinois forces in the Black 
Hawk war he was a ridiculous failure. His fear of losing 
prestige with the volunteers rendered discipline and order 
impossible, and made the so-called 'Svar" an expensive 
farce. 

Beneath his habitual affability and friendliness there 
was concealed a hard stratum of selfishness ; a jealousy and 
envy of the politically prosperous, and a valuation of 
friendships by the standard of loyalty to his service. Du- 
plicity was another of his shortcomings. He emulated 
Uriah Heap in professions of humility and on all occasions 
covered his vanity with a thin veneering of humbleness. 
All his efforts were "humble," and he was eveiy one's 
"humble servant." He made no higher claim to social 
distinction than that of an "humble citizen;" yet courted 

* Gov. Reynolds said that when a young man he occasionally drank 
liquor, in accordance with the generally recognized social custom of 
the country; but that he never liked it. One dav. he said, in the 
spring of 1814, a short time after he had been admitted to the bar, 
he was attending the last term of the court, held bv Judge Jesse 

i Thomas, in the old court house at Cahokia. just before removal 
of the county seat of St. Clair county from that old village to Belle- 
ville, when his father, Robert Reynolds, came in verv much under 
the influence of liquor, and so disturbed the court proceedings by 
loud and profane language, and vulgar drunken conduct, that, by 
^i^ L. °^r„l"^ j"<3ge, he was ejected from the court room by the 
^'^(^P^-/^i^e governor added that he was so mortified by that event, 
and telt such a sense of disgrace, that he then and there resolved 
he would never again taste liquor so long as he lived; and he faith- 
fully adhered to that resolution. 



287 

adulation, and esteemed himself a ^ireat man. . His pre- 
tense that he did not want public positions but was forced 
to offer for them by his "friends;" that he "consented to 
allow his name to be used to o-ratify his friends;" or that 
he sought the office "for the g'ood off the country," or "the 
benefit of the people," and other similar transparent hnm- 
bu«i£i'ery, of course, deceived no one. 

In his Life and Times he says: "For many years before 
1830, when I oflered for Governor of the State, I had no 
political ambition or aspirations for office whatever;" yet, 
previous to 1830, he had aspired to a seat in the constitu- 
tional convention ; was a successful applicant for a Su- 
preme Court Judsieship ; was a candidate for the U. S. 
Senate; applied for re-election to the judf>eship, and was 
three times a candidate for the Lepslature. Of his first 
election to the Leo'islature in 1826, after his defeat for it 
two years before, he makes the foolish but characteristic 
assertion: "I entered into it as much to gratify my friends 
and the people as myself." Again (on page 518) he says. 
"I w^as on the circuit practicing law Avhen Gov. Carlin 
wrote me that he had appointed me a Commissioner to make 
the loan for the canal. I had not the least intimation 
whom he would appoint until I received his letter. I 
called on him at Vandalia and had much conversation with 
him on the subject. I had no desire to visit Europe and 
urged the Governor to appoint some other person. He 
refused and said I must go as he kneiv me and could trust 
me. ' ' 

It is well known that Gov. Reynolds, elected to Congress 
the summer before, was not practicing law but nominally ;* 
that he spent several weeks at Vandalia working up that 
trip to Europe at public expense; that the Fund Commis- 
sioners were already provided for negotiating State loans; 

* l.yman Trumbull, a luitive of Colchoster, Massachusetts, came to Belleville in 
1837, from Georjiia, where he taufjht school for a year. He was soou admitted to 
till! bar, and in 1839 entered into parlnership with Gov. Reynolds for Ihe practice of 
law. In 1840 Reynolds was elected to Coiiy:ress and 'rrumbull to the Legislature, 
when, by mutual consent, the partnership was dissolved. 



288 

that two of them did go to England, and disposed of all 
State bonds that could be sold there, and that Gov. Carlin 
would probably not have thought of sending special Com- 
missioners for that purpose had he not been urged by his 
old comrade. Gov. Reynolds, to do so. The sequel proved 
Gov. Carlin to have been sadly mistaken in the ''trust" he 
is represented to have reposed in the Old Eanger's finan- 
ciering astuteness. 

Dissimulating and truckling in politics as he was, and 
ever watchful to float with the strongest currents of pubHc 
opinion, Gov. Reynolds had views of his own— not pro- 
claimed abroad on all occasions, however— on certain ques- 
tions that he held to all his life with unwavering firmness. 
Of them, one, probably learned from his father, Avas hatred 
of England and the English government. Another was 
the inflexible beHef that African slavery was morally and 
legally right. With equal sincerity he rejected the the- 
ories and tenets of Christianity with all that pertains to 
the supernatural. In early life the infidelity of Tom Paine 
and, later, the cultured agnosticism of Ingersoll, received 
his zealous approval. In the evening of his life, when 
convinced that he had outlived all probabilities of further 
political preferment, and was financially independent, he 
threw off the self-imposed restraints of his long active ca- 
reer and gave free scope to his candid sentiments. His 
habitual use of profane and vulgar language through life 
became more pronounced and unguarded. With advancing 
age he grew more arrogant in his pretensions to "classic" 
learning and literary attainments; more bold and out- 
spoken in defense of the institution of slavery, and more ex- 
treme in his denunciation of miraculous theology. lie was 
a slaveholder until slavery was extinguished in Illinois 
by adoption of the constitution of 1847, and— very 
strangely— that fact was never urged by his opponents as 
an objection to his election in any of his numerous cam- 
paigns for office. After slavery was finally abolished in 
the State he employed none but negro servants, to whom 



289 

he was very kind, as he had always been to his slaves. In 
his retirement and old age the Governor, followed by a 
little colored boy, whom he called Veto, were familiar fig- 
ures about the streets of Belleville. Veto and his mother 
were formerly the Governor's slaves, and chose to remain 
with him after their emancipation. 

At Georgetown, D. C, in May, 1836, Gov. Reynolds was 
united in marriage to Miss Sarah AA^ilson, a young lady of 
Maryland, who was twenty- three years, less fourteen days, 
his junior in age. She was tall, of faultless figure, cul- 
tured and higlily educated. 

At the close of his Congressional career he purchased a 
large, elegant residence — the counterpart of Mr. Snyder's — 
situated a short distance from the public square in Belle- 
ville, where himself and wife passed the balance of their 
days in luxurious comfort and ease. No children blessed 
either of the Governor's marriages; but he reared and 
cared for the two La Croix children of his first wife and 
her stepdaughter, ]\Iarie Manegle, with all of a father's 
affectionate and tender solicitude. 

In one corner of his spacious residence lot he had buili 
a one-story brick house of two or three rooms, ostensibly 
for a law office, but the little law business he did was or 
minor importance, and he attended the courts more Avith 
the view of keeping in touch with "the people" and hif? 
''friends" than from any desire to secure professional em- 
ployment. Situated in his forced retirement with every 
convenience and comfort — including a well assorted library 
— that could contribute to lighten the burdens of declining 
years, but still ambitious for distinction no longer to be ob- 
tained in politics, he entered the inviting field of author- 
ship. Reviewing the past is the logical pastime of advanced 
age; and, fortunately for posterity, Gov. Reynolds con- 
cluded to write and publish the recollections of his singu- 
larly eventful life, and all he knew or could gather of the 
pioneer settlements of Illinois. For some years he had 
gradually become more studious, and had added to his 

—19 ^ 



290 

daily newspaper reading desultory studies of American 
history, natural sciences and speculative philosophy, with- 
out the slightest abatement of his habitual interest in cur- 
rent political matters. 

His last term in Congress expired on the 3d of ]March, 
1843. Returning home, he earnestly turned his attention 
to private business affairs neglected during his official ab- 
sence at Washington, and, in the meantime, gathered ma- 
terials for the Pioneer History of Illinois he long had in 
contemplation. After completion of his office building 
the compilation of his book occupied much of his time. His 
method of writing was peculiarly his own. In preparing 
his literary works he made use of neither desk nor table, 
but resting his paper — the cheapest he could buy — on his 
right knee he w^rote with a pencil, paying no attention to 
the conversation of those about him, and never revised, 
interlined, erased, or corrected a word or sentence. 

The idea of Gov. Reynolds writing a book seemed to those 
who knew him best to be ludicrous and absurd. When 
mentioned it provoked a smile and was the source of much 
amusement and many rude jests among his acquaintances. 
He had himself no sanguine expectation that it would meet 
with ready or extensive sales, and prudently arranged to 
publish it as economically as possible. He purchased an 
old hand press and lot of type which he installed in his 
law office, and hired compositors out of other employment 
to print it. The Pioneer History of Illinois was issued in 
1852 with a brief introduction by the author apologizing 
for his "humble" and "unpretending" efforts. In ap- 
pearance it was indeed an "unpretending" volume, and 
was received by his fellow citizens of Belleville with jeers 
and derisive criticisms. The internal arrangement of the 
book— if it can be said to have any arrangement— is high- 
ly characteristic of its author, without connection, sj^stem 
or order. Events occurring a century apart are recorded 
on the same page ; and in close proximity history and biog- 
raphy are associated with remarks on green-headed flies. 



291 

As Judge Scott remarks, it appears as though he . had 
thrown his manuscript down in a pile as he wrote it, and 
told his compositors to help themselves when they wanted 
copy. 

It is, however, a work of priceless value, occupying 
alone an original field, exhaustively treated, and thor- 
oughly reliable. The plain, homely style in which it is 
written gives it a peculiar charm. No other person in the 
State could have written such a history but Gov. Reynolds, 
and he wrote it just at the right time, when many of the- 
early pioneers (whom he consulted) were still living; and 
much of the great mass of facts (names of persons and 
dates) he collected, if not then recorded would have been 
irretrievably lost. It is a store of inestimable historic 
wealth in records of thrilling incidents and events that 
occurred when laying the foundations of our great State ; 
in the many bigraphical sketches of its founders ; in quaint 
but vivid pictures of pioneer life, and of the social and 
political progress of that era that cannot elsewhere be ob- 
tained. Had John Reynolds before been utterly unknown 
that unique, unpretending volume alone would have en- 
sured his lasting fame ; and will render his name imperish- 
able so long as the name of Illinois endures. 

[Between Gov. Reynolds and myself (the writer of this 
sketch), then a school boy, there existed a cordial and inti- 
mate friendship dating from some time before he com- 
menced to write the Pioneer History, and continuing to his 
last hours, which, to me, is now a most pleasing and grati- 
fying memory. Calling on him one day, on my way from 
school, I found him deeply absorbed in a lengthy news- 
paper review of a small volume, recently issued anony- 
mously, entitled Vestiges of the Natural History of Crea- 
tion, to which he Avas about to call my especial attention, 
AV'hen I informed him I had the book and had just read it. 
"The hell you say! Where did you get it, John?" said 
he. He was so impatient to see the work that I went home 
immediately and brought it to him. It was not returned 



292 

to me until after his death, nearly twenty years later. That 
small volume— a masterly compilation by Robert Cham- 
bers—profoundly impressed the Old Ranger. The nebular 
hypothesis of planetary formation, and LaMarck's theory 
(of evolution were a startling revelation to him. They ac- 
■corded exactly with his crude notions of cosmic origin, and 
received his unqualified assent. The possibility of a new 
undiscovered natural law suggested by the Babbage calcu- 
lating machine, fairly bewildered him with puzzled sur- 
prise. The Vestiges was uppermost in his mind for some 
time, and so interested him that he resolved to enter the 
lecture field, as well as that of authorship. Thereupon he 
prepared several lectures on natural history, the sciences 
Dud natural and moral philosophy, a few of which he de- 
livered to amused, but unappreciative, audiences in Belle- 
ville and others he incorporated in his romance entitled the 
Life and Adventures of John Kelly]. 

When departing from the beaten paths of history and 
biography to invade the enchanting realm of fiction, though 
he garnished the coinage of his very obtuse imagination 
with learned ethical and philosophical discourses, the Gov- 
ernor transcended his literary powers. His Adventures of 
John Kelly, published in 1853, was a flat failure. It had 
neither plan or plot, and was merely' a rambling narra- 
tive framed to introduce his unused lectures. The hero 
jumping out of the court house window into a lot of bee 
hives in the center of the city of New Orleans, intended by 
the Governor for humor, was not generally appreciated, 
and thought to be too far-fetched to be funny. 

The Governor's next work appearing in 1854, was a 
series of Sketches of what he observed when visiting the 
Kew York Crystal Palace, the first of the great expositions 
held in this country. The little book is pleasantly written 
and contains some descriptive and statistical information 
of interest. He published the next year, 1855, from his 
own printing office another "unpretending" volume en- 
titled '^My Own Times, Embracing also the History of My 



293 

Life." As indicated by its title, the work is not only the 
Governor's autobiography, but a supplement to, or con- 
tinuation of, his Pioneer History, completing it, and great- 
ly enhancing its value. The division into many chapters; 
of his Life and Times is a mechanical improvement, but 
otherwise it presents the same originality of style, and the- 
sfime melange of text as the Pioneer History. 

A marked feature of the Governor's biographical sketch- 
es is his indiscriminate praise of everybody. Of very few 
of the old pioneers he speaks disparagingly. He describes 
them all as a race of exceptionally ''talented," ''strong 
minded," "honest," "respectable" people, having no 
faults worth mentioning. But that politic "blarney," in- 
tended for their living descendents detracts nothing from 
the high merit of his histories. 

The next product of his pen Avas a sketch of Dr. John 
Mason Peck, bearing XliQ impressive title of Friendship's 
Offering, issued from the Advocate office in Belleville in 
May, 1858. It is a small volume of thirty-four pages, di- 
vided into twenty-five chapters. In literary worth it is no 
improvement on his other compositons, having the same 
confusion of subjects, and the same absence of system and 
order. It is in no sense a biography of Dr. Peck, only a 
mess of fulsome praise. After establishing his printing 
office the Governor learned to set type, and often amused 
himself with setting up. and printing, in hand-bill 
form, for free distribution, his "Views on the issues of the 
day," "Peace offerings," "Olive Branches," and 
"Speeches delivered by Ex-Gov. Reynolds to large and en- 
thusiastic meetings," called at his instigation to afford 
him the opportunity to "address the people." 

His interest in the fiery political turmoil preceding the 
civil war was intense. Conscious that he was beyond the 
pale of further office holding he was no longer restrained 
by fear of public censmre, and gave free expression on all 
0(tcasions to his true sentiments. He bitterly opposed both 
Lincoln and Douglas, and was loud in his suppo-t of 



294 

Breckenridge for the Presidency. He strongly advocated 
peace, and preservation of the Union, but only on certain 
conditions. As a Southern Democrat, he held the Abo- 
litionists, Republicans and Douglas Democrats— all equallj^ 
odious to him— responsible for the distracted condition of 
the country. 

In February, 1854, two young practical printers started 
a paper in Belleville called The Eagle, under the editorial 
control of Gov. Revnolds, but it was not successful and 
soon passed into other hands. In the winter of 1858-9 
The Star of Egypt, a weekly paper, edited by Gov. Rey- 
nolds and James W. Hughes, was issued from the Gov- 
ernor's printing office. It was a Buchanan campaign pa- 
per and did stalwart service for its cause through the one 
season of its existence ; but the Old Ranger as editor gained 
no new laurels. His last literary production of note was 
published in the midst of the turbulent excitement that 
convulsed the country in 1860, culminating the next year- 
in horrors of civil war. He labeled it '^The Balm of Gil- 
ead/' perhaps in a spirit of irony, and named it "An In- 
quiry Into the Right of American Slavery.' ' It is a book 
of forty-eight pages, issued from his own printing office, 
rnd differs in composition from all his other writings, that 
scattered— shot-gun like— to cover all subjects, in being 
confined closely to the logical discussion of his topic. It 
embodies the best thoughts and studies of his life .on the 
subject of slavery, and all the arguments that could be ad- 
vanced in its defense. It is better and more concisely 
written than his other productions, and differs from them 
in the tone of malevolence that pervades it. For these 
reasons it has been intimated that he did not w^ite it, but 
there is little doubt that it emanated from his own pen, 
with liberal plagarizing from eminent southern writers and 
speakers. It was labor lost, for the time for pleading in 
slavery's interest was past. 

In the four years of civil war the sympathies of Gov. 
Reynolds were all for the southern cause. Only his ad- 



295 

vanced aoe and respect for his past services to the State 
saved him from arrest and imprisonment for his constant 
ill-tempered criticisms of the north, and vehement laudation 
of the south. 

In the historv of Illinois, Gov. Revnolds alone has the 
distinction of having held the highest position in each of 
the three coordinate branches of State government, i. e., 
Governor. Chief Justice and Speaker of the House of Repre- 
sentatives. He served for six years as a judge, four years 
as Governor, eight years in the Legislature and seven years 
in Congress. He was defeated once each for the Legislature, 
for the United States Senate, for Congress, for the State 
Senate and for State Superintendent of Schools. 

John Quinc3^ Adams, who served in Congress with Gov. 
Reynolds, recorded in his J}iary this estimate of him : ' ' He 
is untruthful, vulgar and knavish"; a harsh judgment of 
him not altogether just or true. He was at times vulgar in 
speech unquestionably. In politics he was cunning, hypo- 
critical and, possibly knavish ; but in all business affairs 
he was honest, and in all social relations he was an honor- 
able man and good citizen. His jealousy and envy of rivals 
had no admixture of malice or vindictiveness. He offended 
no one purposely, was ever ready to oblige or assist a friend 
or neighbor, was kind and tender hearted, and deeply moved 
by the suffering, or misery, of man or beast. His habits, 
excepting in use of vulgar language, were most exemplary. 
An undue fondness for the fair sex was, by some, very 
unjustly attributed to him. An anecdote he told, with 
the zest that he always related jokes or anecdotes of which 
he himself was the butt, hinting at the weakness just men- 
tioned, represented him one evening, after supper, rum- 
aging about the pantry and closets, when his wife asked 
him what he was looking for. He answered that he was 
hunting for a lantern, as he Avas going up town and the 
night was very dark. "I would hardly think," said she, 
''that you would want a light when going to the places 
you usually visit after night." 



296 

But he was not a ''lady's man," and rather shunned 
their society. In his intercourse with all classes he was 
invariably friendly, social and kind, inclined to charity and 
benevolence, yet very selfish, and not at all liberal or gen- 
erous Avith his means. 

Gov. Reynolds lived to see the close of the terrible conflict 
between the northern and southern states, the final and 
complete abolition of slavery, and the triumph of the Union 
cause. He felt that result to be a personal defeat and 
humiliation, but was still defiant. 

The ravages of time had at length undermined his iron 
constitution ; and when, eight or ten days after the assassin- 
ation of President Lincoln, he was stricken down with 
pneumonia, his exhausted vitality was too feeble to resist 
its attack. He realized that he had reached the terminus 
of his long and remarkable course ; but felt not the slight- 
est trepidation; nor experienced the least wavering of his 
materialistic belief that "Death ends all." 

A minister of the gospel, impelled by a sense of duty, 
came to the dying man's bedside, and told him of the error 
of his views, and of the glorious consolations of the true 
faith, and transcendent bliss of Christian hopes. The rev- 
erend gentleman paused to note the effect of his eloquent 
exhortation, and then the Governor turned, A\dth a look of 
withering contempt and gasped, ''The hell you say." 

Gov. Reynolds died, at his home in Belleville, on the 8th 
of May, 1865, aged 77 years, 2 months and 10 days. His 
wife survived him but two and a half months, dying, of 
cancer, on the 17th of the following July. Their ashes 
rest together in Walnut Hill cemetery, near Belleville, be- 
neath a stately monument erected to their memory by Mrs. 
Colman, the only sister of Mrs. Reynolds, who inherited 
the main portion of their estate. 

After the burial of Gov. Reynolds, it was discovered that 
all his private papers, correspondence, documents, and a 
Will he is supposed to have made, had totally disappeared. 
That he had executed a last Will and testament is not posi- 



297 

tively known ; but the destruction of his papers and manu- 
scripts entailed a loss to the public— particularly to stu- 
dents of Illinois history— irreparable and beyond computa- 
tion. ' 



CHAPTER XV. 

The "Coon SKin and Hard Cider" Campaign of 1840 — Mr, Snyder elected 
State Senator and Presidential Elector— He bet on Van Buren and lost 
—Extra Session of the Legislature — Gillespie and Lincoln jumped out 
of the Legislative hall to break the quorum — Reforming the Judiciary 
—The Mormon Charters— Stephen A. Douglas. 

The political contest of 1S40 was the most memorable, for 
wild excitement and extravagant demonstrations, ever 
known in the State's history. So wholly and thoroughly 
was the campaign in Illinois dominated by national issues 
that local affairs of the State and its dismal financial condi- 
tion were seldom publicly mentioned prior to the State 
election. The Whigs were well organized, and determined 
to overthrow the iron rule of Jacksonism at any cost. They 
regarded the administration of Van Buren as but a continu- 
ation of Jackson's, only more odious. Though Van Buren 
was admittedly an able statesman, of clean record person 
ally, he was wealthy, aristocratic, and not one of the com- 
mon people. The fact that he had seen no military service 
placed him, and the party he led, in great disadvantage 
against a candidate with the military renown of Gen'l 
Harrison, who had fought the British and Indians with 
valor and success The Whigs laid no stress upon Genl 
Harrison's scholastic attainments, or his very creditable 
civil services, or his political views ; but loudly extolled his 
patriotism and war record, his simple pioneer habits and 
unquestioned integrity of character. 

In appealing to the people, one of their most effective 
arguments was the prevailing hard times, attributed by 
them to Democratic misrule; and which they, unwisely, 
pledged their party, if successful at the presidential elec- 
tion, would relieve and substitute such prosperity that 
every laborer Avould receive for his work "two dollars a 
day and roast beef." They adopted the tactics, in elec- 
tioneering for Harrison, that the Jackson men employed 



299 

with telling' effect in 1832 ; but with a hundred fold more 
furor and sensational parade. For 'months before the elec- 
tion popular interest and excitement were wrought up to 
the highest tension. The backwoods life of Gen'l Harrison, 
and his victory at the battle of Tippecanoe were typified, 
in daily parades and processions, by the most extravagant 
and grotesque displays of log cabins and all sorts of 
canoes, yawls and scows, mounted on wheels, garnished with 
coon skins, live coons, barrels of hard cider, gourds, deer 
horns and Indian trappings; accompanied by brass bands, 
fifes and drums, flags and banners, and files of mounted 
men dressed in buckskin, with coonskin caps, having pow- 
der horns, bullet pouches and long flint-lock rifles. 

A common feature of the daily demonstrations in that 
famous "coonskin and hard cider" campaign for election 
of ''Old Tippecanoe and Tyler too," was a large log cabin 
oti wheels, drawn by eight or ten fine horses, or as -many 
yokes of oxen, with live coons on the cabin roof, coonskins 
tacked on its sides and open doors, and in the cabin 'a man 
in backwoods garb sitting on a hard cider barrel playing 
the fiddle, and others, in similar attire, drinking— or pre- 
tending to drink— hard cider from gourds. That was fol- 
lowed bv an immense canoe, on wheels, embellished with 
emblems of pioneer life of the same kind, and several 
lesser ones with the usual accompaniments of bands and 
flags, and long processions of people on horseback and in 
all sorts of conveyances. 

The Democrats could boast of no war achievements or 
early plebeian associations for their candidate. He had 
never worn a linsey hunting shirt and moccasins, or drank 
hard cider out of a gourd. In vain they sought to stem 
the impetuous tide of popular favor for "Old Tippecanoe" 
by attempting to revive the fading lustre of Old Hickory. 
But Jackson had passed into history. Harrison, the blood- 
stained hero, was the reigning idol, and awoke a cyclone 
of patriotic enthusiasm that swept the country. 

However, at the State election on the 2d of August, 1840, 



300 

the Democrats carried Illinois, owing— the Whigs asserted 
— to the foreign voters on the canal Avorks A large major- 
ity of the foreigners in Illinois then, and on to the Kansas- 
Nebraska schism in 1854, imbned with Democratic princi- 
ples at home before emigrating, voted the Democratic ticket 
here. 

In the First Congressonal district Gov. Reynolds de- 
feated Watson H. Webb by a large majority. In the Sec- 
ond district, Zadok Casey was re-elected and, in the Third 
the Whigs elected Col. John T. Stewart. Mr. Synder was 
elected Senator in St. Clair county, receiving 1756 votes 
to 913 cast for Col. Vital Jarrott, a native of Cahokia, the 
Whig candidate. The result of the Augaist election damp- 
ened the spirits of the AVhigs in Illinois, as the Democrats 
elected two of the three Congressmen and a majority of 
both houses of the Legislature. Still, the Whigs hoped to 
carry the State for Harrison in November, and continued 
their pageants of log cabins, canoes, coonskins and hard 
cider barrels, with increased energy. They were rewarded 
by the election of ''Old Tippecanoe and Tyler too;" but 
the State of Illinois gave Van Buren a majority of 1939, 
and ]\Ir. Snyder was, of course, one of the successful Pres- 
idential electors. By his influence liis friend, Mr. Koer- 
ner, was selected as messenger to convey the electoral vote 
of Illinois to AVashington. 

AVhen in Baltimore in the spring of 1839, ]\Ir. Snyder 
contracted with a manufacturing establishment there for a 
family carriage at the price of $500. In those days of in- 
fant industries the construction of a fine carriage was a 
slow and tedious process, as every part of it was shaped 
and finished by hand. Then its transportation by sailing 
vessel to New Orleans, thence up the Mississippi to St. 
Louis, consumed as much, or more, time than was required 
to manufacture it. Consequently winter had set in when 
the barouche arrived in Belleville, and it was housed up 
until spring. With return of pleasant weather and dry 
roads in 1840 the carriage was frequently in use by Mr. 



301 

Snyder and members of his family for exercise thought to 
be beneficial to his health, as well as for pleasure. 

One day in the height of the coonskin campaign as Mr. 
Snyder was engaged in a heated political discussion with 
Mr. James Mitchell, the Belleville postmaster, who Avas 
formerly a Jackson man, but then a proselyte to the Whig 
faith, Mr. IMitchell clinched his arguments by offering to 
bet $500 against Mr. Snyder's new carriage that Harrison 
would be elected President. The bet was immediatelv 
accepted. When the election returns Avere received, leav- 
ing no doubt of Van Buren's defeat, Mr. Snyder had his 
colored boy to dust the barouche and burnish its metal 
trimmings, then to deliver it, with his compliments, at 
Mr. Mitchell's residence. Seeing the lost Avager off in good 
condition, he Avalked up to his office, cane in hand, as com- 
posedly as though nothing unusual had occurred. The 
younge;- members of his family, hoAvever, Avere not so 
easily reconciled to their loss, and from that time on enter- 
tained but little affection for the winner of the bet. [Time 
brought their revenge. Mr. Mitchell served as Postmaster 
at Belleville continuously from 1831 to 1845, when he Avas 
superceded by William H. Snyder, eldest son of Adam W. 
Snyder, not then tAventy-one years of age, who Avas ap- 
pointed Postmaster by President Polk]. 

Mr. Snyder had quite a fancy for fine horses, and gen- 
erally kept three or four of the best he could buy. In the 
fall of 1839 he purchased or traded for a fine large car- 
riage horse four years old of bright roan color, and then 
searched the country over for one to match him. At last 
he found an almost perfect match in size, color and age, 
and bought it. The stable on the premises Avas at the nortli 
end of a lane forty feet Avide, extending across the block 
from First to Second North streets ; the stable door, facing 
the south, was in two sections, the upper half usually kept 
open during the day and the loAver half closed. The ncAV 
horse proved to be unsophisticated and Avanting in style 
for carriage service, so Mr. Snyder concluded to train him 



302 

in the way he should go. With that object in view h<^ 
had him brought from the stable one morning* down to the 
stile near the house, and there he adjusted on him a "bit- 
ting" apparatus, consisting of surcingle, bridle and curb 
rein, that caused the animal to hold his head up and look 
aristocratic. When all was fixed to suit his ideas, Mr. 
Snyder turned the colt loose, and cracked his whip to 
si art him off that he might see how he looked and moved. 
He was successful in starting him. The frightened horse 
dashed up the lane at full speed, and arriving at the stable 
leaped into it over the closed lower half of the door, but 
the curbing rein so hampered his action that he fell, or 
alighted, inside the stable on his head, and broke his neck. 
Seeing that he was dead, Mr. Snyder told the stable boy 
to haul him oft' into the woods, and made no further allu- 
sion to the incident. 

By the national census taken in 1840 tHe population of 
Illinois was 476,183. So desperate was the financial af- 
fairs of the State that Gov. Carlin was forced to call the 
Legislature to meet in extra session on the 23d of Novem- 
ber, 1840, to devise means for paying interest on the State 
debt due the first day of January, 1841. The twelfth Gen- 
eral Assembly, elected in August, was Democratic, the Sen- 
ate having 26 Democrats and 14 Whigs, and the House 51 
Democrats and 40 Whigs, and met at Springfield on thj 
appointed date. In the Senate, among others less known, 
were E. D. Baker, Richard M. Cullom, Wm. H. Davidson, 
Wm. J. Gatewood, John S. Hacker, Archer G. Herndon, 
John Moore, Wm. A. Richardson, James H. Ralston, Adam 
AV. Snyder, W. B. Stapp, Henry Little, William Fithian 
and John D. Wood. In the House were Wm. H. Bissell, ^lil- 
ton Carpenter, Alfred W. Cavarly, John Dougherty, Cyrus 
Edwards, Wm. L. D. Ewing, Joseph Gillespie, Ashel Grid- 
loy, John J. Hardin, John Logan, Abraham Lincoln, John 
A. McClernand, Pierre Menard, Wm. A. IMinshall, Eben- 
ezer Peck, Lewis W. Ross, Lyman Trumbull and David A. 
Woodson. 



303 

Lieutenant Governor Stinton II. Anderson presided over 
the Senate. In orgranizing the House, William L. D. Ew- 
ing and Abraham Lincoln were again opposing candidates 
for the Speakership, and Ewing was elected Speaker— for 
the third time— by the vote of 46 to 36. 

The message of Gov. Carlin to the Ijegislature was very 
different in tone from that of his first, delivered two years 
before. He commenced by saying: ''While we have 
abundant cause to be devoutly thankful to an overruling 
Providence for the success that has everywhere attended 
industry — bountifully rewarding the husbandman for his 
labor — it is to be deeply deplored that our State is meas- 
ureably overwhelmed with pecuniary embarrassmentSo 
These embarrassments have grown out of our svstem of 
internal improvements, adopted by improvident legislation 
at a time when, the delusive phantom of speculation seemed 
to have taken possession of the human mind, and led the 
world into extravagance and error ; and however deeply 
we ma}" regret the evil which this system has entailed upon 
us it would be unwise and unpatriotic to shrink from the 
responsibility of applying your best efforts to the pecuni- 
ary redemption of the State, and the preservation of her 
honor. The vast debt she has incurred must be paid, and 
this can only be done by a strict and rigid maintenance of 
her credit abroad and the wisdom with which the measures 
are directed at home. ' ' 

In assignment of the Senate committees, Mr. Snyder, 
recognized as the Democratic leader in that body, was made 
chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and was also placed 
on the Committee on Counties, and the Penitentiarv. The 
primal object of the extra session was to devise some ex- 
pedient for meeting the January interest on the public 
debt, and, if possible, to adopt a plan for ultimately liqui- 
dating the entire debt and interest. Early in the session 
Mr. Pearson, of the Cook county district, offered a pre- 
amble and resolutions in the Senate to test the sentimenc 
of members on the proposition to repudiate the entire debt 



304 

contracted for internal improvements, as was boldly ad- 
\ocated by influential individuals and newspapers profess- 
ing to speak for the Democratic party. On motion of 
Mr. Gatewood — who had left the Whigs and Avas then a 
Democrat — Mr. Pearson's resolutions were referred to the 
Judiciary Committee. Mr. Snyder, chairman of that com- 
mittee, reported back the resolutions amended as follows: 
"Strike out all after the words, 'That it has been repre- 
sented,' and add, that we consider all contracts made, in 
pursuance of laws, by our agents, when the consideration 
has been received, as valid and binding upon the people 
of the State of Illinois, and that common honesty, and the 
honor of the State, demand a strict and punctual fulfill- 
ment on our part, in every particular, of all obligations, 
as we shall expect and require the same of individuals or 
corporations with' whom contracts may have been made." 
That report was adopted unanimously. ' 

After such an unequivocal declaration, by both parties, 
it was to be expected that the lawmakers would proceed 
energetically and uninterruptedly to accomplish the busi- 
ness they were called together to transact. But, though 
united against repudiation, political questions were ob- 
truded that fanned the smouldering embers of party rancor 
and jealousy into a blaze of feeling that retarded the much 
needed legislation. Members of both parties were irritable 
and ill-humored: the Democrats because of the Whig na- 
tional triumph, and the Whigs because of Democratic suc- 
cess at every point in Illinois at the late elections. The 
first firebrand thrown into the legislative magazine was the 
appointment, by Gov. Carlin, of Stephen A. Douglas to 
the office of Secretary of State. Alexander Pope Field, 
the incumbent, was appointed to the office by Gov. Edwards 
in 1828, and h'ad held it continuously since. When ap- 
pointed he was a Jackson man ; but had since turned and 
joined the Whigs. 

Gov. Carlin, as was just and proper, desiring his chief 
State officer to be in political harmony with himself, soon 



305 

after his inauguration appointed John A. jMcClernand Sec- 
retary of State in Field's place. The question was thereupon 
raised, by the Whigs, of the Governor's power to appoint 
a Secretary of State, excepting when a vacancy occurred. 
In 1818, when writing the constitution for the new State, 
Elias K. Kane, assuming that he would be appointed the 
first Secretary, inserted a clause in that instrument pro- 
viding for appointment of the Secretary of State by the 
Governor, and the other State officers to be elective by 
the Legislature. The Whigs having a majority in the 
Senate when Gov. Carlin assumed his office, refused to 
confirm his appointment of McClernand; but immediately 
after the Legislature adjourned the Governor again appoint- 
ed him. He demanded the office of Field, who refused to 
surrender it; whereupon he applied to the circuit court for 
a writ of quo warranto. 

The case was tried before Judge Breese, who decided it 
in McCJernand's favor. Field appealed to the Supreme 
Court, then comprising three Whigs and one Democrat, 
before whom the case was ably argued by Attorney Gen- 
eral Wlcklift'e Kitchell, Stephen A. Douglas and James 
Shields for McClernand, and by Cyrus Walker, Justin 
Butterfield and Levi Davis for Field. The decision of 
the court below was reversed, and Field remained in pos- 
session of the office. 

The nomination of Stephen A. Douglas for Secretary of 
State, by Gov. Carlin, on the seventh day of the called 
session, was promptly confirmed by the Democratic major- 
ity of the Senate. Though the constitution gave the Gover- 
nor power to appoint the Secretary of State, and failed to 
specify his power to dismiss him, it was evidently not the 
intention of the framers of that instrument to make that 
office one of life tenure. Mr. Field, at last convinced of 
the correctness of that view, yielded his place to Mr. Doug- 
las without hesitation or protest, and retired. 

Col. A. P. Field was a man of striking personal appear- 
ance. Six feet three inches tall, perfectly formed, with 
—20 



306 

erect, soldierly bearing, and the polished manners of a born 
courtier. His otherwise handsome features were marred 
by a nodular, potato-like nose that disfigured him. He was 
a Kentuekian, an eloquent speaker, and famous criminal 
la\^'yer. He was elected to represent Union County in the 
Legislature in 1822, and was a leading supporter of the 
convention scheme to make Illinois a slave State in 1823-4. 
As a radical Jackson man he Avas re-elected to the Legis- 
lature in 1826, and 1828. Gov. Edwards appointed him 
Secretary of State in 1828, and he became a Whig. Ousted 
from office by the Democrats in 1840, President Tyler ap- 
pointed him Secretary of Wisconsin Territory in 1841. 
A¥hen Wisconsin was admitted into the Union, in 1847, he 
left and located in St. Louis ; but did not remain long, and 
changed his residence to New Orleans, and was practicing 
law there Avhen the Civil war commenced in 1861. He was 
a Union man, but fearing mob violence, he published a card 
intending to convey a denial of that fact. When New 
Orleans fell into Federal hands. Col. Field was a leader 
of the carpet baggers, and was elected to Congress in 1863. 
But his early pro-slavery antecedents and published card 
created a doubt of his loyalty, and he was not seated in 
the House. During the reconstruction era thaLt followed 
the war he became Attorney General of Louisiana ; and died 
in New Orleans in 1877, after a long and painful illness. 

Another cause of friction between the parties in the Leg- 
islature arose from suspension of specie payments by the 
State banks. The law of 1838 specified that when a bank 
suspended and did not resume its payment of specie before 
adjournment of the next following session of the Legisla- 
ture, its charter would be forfeited and its doors closed; 
provided its suspension was not sanctioned, and permitted 
to continue, by act of said legislative session. It was plainly 
evident that the banks could not resume specie payment 
before adjournment of the extra session ; and seemed equal- 
ly certain that the Democratic majority would not legalize 
their suspension. To gain time the Whigs contended that 



307 

the called session and regular session were together but one 
session. The Democrats insisted that each was a distinct 
session. The salvation of the banks then apparently de- 
pended upon success of the Whig eiforts to prevent sine die 
adjournment at the last day of the called session, Saturday 
before commencement of the regular session, on the next 
Monday. Their hope to defeat adjournment was to absent 
themselves and thereby break the quorum necessary to carry 
the motion to adjourn. In the Senate, to guard against that 
maneuver of the AVhigs, Mr. Snyder moved that ''the lob- 
bies be cleared, and that an officer be placed at the door of 
the Senate to prevent the egress of any Senator ; and that 
the Sergeant-at-arms be authorized to employ a sufficient 
number of persons to bring the absent Senators to the 
Senate chamber, ' ' which was adopted. A similar resolution 
Avas passed in the House. In the Senate no effort was made 
to break the quorum ; but it was tried in the House. 

Messrs. Lincoln and Gillespie, members of the House, 
were selected to remain and call for the ' ' ayes ' ' and ^ ' noes. ' ' 
Before the vote Avas taken, however, several of the 'Sveak- 
kneed" Whigs allowed themselves to be arrested by the 
Sergeant-at-arms and brought back into the hall. Fearing 
enough had returned to make a quorum, Lincoln and Gil- 
lespie delegated two of the late arrivals to demand call 
of the roll on the motion to adjourn sine die and concluded 
to absent themselves. They found the doors of the churchy 
in which their House was sitting, securely locked and that 
mode of egress barred; then raising one of the windows 
they jumped out. Their acrobatic feat, however, availed 
nothing, as enough Whigs were captured to constitute a 
quorum, and the extra session adjourned sine die on Satur- 
day, Dec. 5th, 1840, having fritted away the time Avithout 
passing any bill of importance. 

The regular session began on Monday, Dec. 7th, and one 
of its first acts was to legalize suspension of the banks, and, 
further than that, to authorize them to issue notes of small 
denominations, a privilege before denied them. Times 



308 

were too hard to compel the banks to close their doors and 
stop business merely to gratify party spite. That con- 
cession by the Democrats quieted all party animosity for 
the time and the members of both houses harmoniously and 
earnestly devoted themselves to the toufi:h problem of ex- 
tricating the State from its grave difficulties. To arrange 
for paying maturing interest, and save something from 
the wreck of suspended railroads, the following measures 
were adopted: First, the Fund Commissioner was directed 
to hypothecate $300,000 of internal revenue bonds for an 
amount sufficient to pay the interest legally due on Jan. 
1st, 1841. Payment of interest on bonds sold on credit and 
not paid for was strongly contested, but finally left to the 
discretion of the Commissioner. And, secondly, interest 
bonds were authorized to be issued and sold in open market 
for what they might bring to pay interest on that portion 
of the public debt for which no funds were otherwise pro- 
vided, and also to redeem the hypothecated bonds. On 
Feb. 27th, 1841, a bill was passed for the levy and collection 
or a tax of ten cents on the hundred dollars value of prop- 
erty, to be set apart exclusively as an "interest fund" to 
pay interest on last named bonds. The minimum assess- 
ment of all lands for taxation was fixed at $3 per acre, and 
an appropriation of $100,000 was made to complete that 
portion of the Northern Cross railroad from Jacksonville 
to Springfield, then almost finished. 

The credit of the State had fallen so low that her bonds 
could not be sold in any market for any approximation of 
their face value. The January interest was paid, but hav- 
ing no funds in the treasury to meet the semi-annual July 
interest, John D. Whiteside , the Fund Commissioner,' hy- 
pothecated to McAllister & Stebbins, brokers in New York 
City, 804 interest bearing internal improvement bonds of 
$1,000 each, for the loan of $321,600, of which amount but 
$261,460 was ever received. That transaction was pro- 
lific of much subsequent trouble and great expense to the 
State, which never redeemed those hypothcated bonds, but 



309 

in time purchased eighty of them, and three hundred and 
fifteen of them were received from the Shawneetown bank 
for its State stock. 

With the best intentions for relief of the debt-burdened 
people, the Legislature in February, passed certain stay 
laws, providing that property sold under execution should 
not be sacrificed, but must bring two-thirds of its value ap- 
praised ''as in ordinary times." But, as has invariably 
been the case with all similar laws, that measure reacted to 
the detriment of the class it was intended to benefit and 
only increased their hardships. 

The financial embarrassments of the State and people 
having been temporarily bridged over by the Legislature, 
the Democratic leaders in that body, figuratively, dug up 
the buried hatchet, and turned their attention to remedying 
political embarrassments gravely threatening their party 
supremacy. Of the four Supreme Court Justices, AVilson,^ 
BroAvne and Lockwood were Whigs, and Theophilus W. 
Smith the only Democrat. Their decision in the quo tvar- 
ranto case of McClernand vs. Field plainly indicated what 
Democrats were to expect from that tribunal in future 
cases involving their party interests. There was then 
pending in the courts a case (supposedly) defining the right 
of suffrage, of vital importance to the Democratic party, 
of which they could not afford to risk an ultimate decision 
by the partisan Supreme Court as then constituted. Ninety 
per cent of all foreigners in Illinois voted the Democratic 
ticket, and to that element was due, in a great measure, the 
ascendency of the Democracy in the State. 

The State Constitution thus specified the qualifications 
of voters: "In all elections, all male white inhabitants 
above the age of twenty-one years, having resided in the 
State six months next preceding the election, shall enjoy 
the right of an elector." The Whigs, desiring to exclude 
foreign voters from the polls, because they were Democrats, 
had long contended that the just construction to be put 
upon that clause of the constitution was that citizens only 



310 

should be electors ; though the practice had been, from the 
adoption of the constitution, to permit all white men of 
age, if previously residents of the State for six months, to 
vote, whether citizens or aliens. The question was much 
discussed in 1839, when the strength of the AVhig party 
was greatly augmented by large accessions of population 
in the northern counties, making it apparent that, with 
the alien voters eliminated, that party would carry the 
State at the next Presidential election. To disfranchise the 
Irish and "Dutch" Democrats before the elections of 1840 
two Whigs, at Galena, arranged an agreed case, in 1839 — 
known as the ''Galena alien case" — relying upon the Whig 
Supreme Court for a favorable decision. One of the 
Whigs sued the other who had served as an election judge 
for $100 for use of the county, for having at an election 
held in 1838 received, in his official capacity, the vote of an 
alien. The case was tried before Judge Daniel Stone, a 
Whig, who decided for the plaintiff. 

That decision caused • great consternation among the 
Democrats, whose leaders, upon consultation, concluded 
that the final decision of that question by the, higher 
(Whig) court, to which the defendant appealed, must, by 
all means, be delayed until after the next Presidential elec- 
tion. The case was ably argued at the December, 1839, 
term of that court and, by sharp tactics of the Democratic 
managers, was continued to the next June term. They 
thus gained their first point, but the June term would be 
held at the height of the Presidential campaign, and a 
decision then by the Whig court would certainly give the 
State to Harrison in November. When it seemed the Dem- 
ocratic leaders were at the end of their resources. Justice 
Theopilus W. Smith, the Democratic Judge on the Supreme 
bench, who had for a long time aspired to a seat in the 
United States Senate, came to the rescue of his party. He 
had discovered a defect in the record of the case of one 
figure, and, in confidence, pointed it out to one of the de- 
fendant's Democratic lawvers. When the case was called 



311 

in June, the attorney, posted by Judge Smith, entered a 
motion to digmiss, for the reason that in the record the 
cause of complaint was stated to have occurred on the 6th 
day of August, 1839 (instead of 1838), at which date no 
such election was held as therein alleged. Thus another 
important point was gained by the Democrats ; as leave to 
amend would necessarily carry the case over, beyond the 
State and National elections, to the December term, 1840. 

By the December term of the Supreme Court the Dem- 
ocratic lawyers had discovered that the constitutional ques- 
tion the case was expected to decide was not before the 
court at all, the appeal having been taken simply upon that 
provision of the election law of 1829 thus stated: "If any 
judge of election shall knowingly admit any person to vote, 
not qualified according to law, he shall forfeit and pay to 
the county the sum of one hundred dollars; and any per- 
son presenting himself to vote, and his qualifications be 
suspected, he shall swear that he is a resident of the county, 
has resided in the State six months next preceding the 
election : is twenty-one years old, and has not before voted 
at that election." As no infraction of that law was proven 
the Supreme Court decided that the court below erred, and 
reversed its judgment. 

Apprehensive that the Whigs would again attempt to 
raise the question of constitutional qualifications of voters, 
and unwilling to submit its final decision to three Whig 
justices, the Democratic leaders in the Legislature deter- 
mined upon the expedient of reforming the judiciary sys- 
tem, and thereby change the political complexion of the 
Supreme Court. The four justices of that court were ap- 
pointed for life, and consequently could not be ousted ex- 
cepting by impeachment, or change of the constitution. 
Since 1835 the Legislature had, from time to time, in- 
creased the number of judicial districts until in 1841 there 
were nine, with a circuit judge presiding over each. The 
bold — and revolutionary— plan adopted by the Democrats 
was to legislate the nine circuit judges out of office, and 



312 

increase the nnmber of Supreme Court justices to nine, re- 
quiring them to hold circuit courts as formerly. Accord- 
ingly, on the 10th of December, 1840, Mr. Snyder, chair- 
man of the Judiciary Committee of the Senate, reported a 
bill for an Act to "reorganize the judiciary," embracing 
the "reforms" stated, and spoke for nearly an hour in sup- 
port of the measure.* It met strenuous opposition from 
all the Whig members, and passive objections from the few 
Democrats whom Justice Smith could influence; or who 
Avere reluctant to favor the "reforms" because of their 
personal friendship, or sympathy, for the ousted circuit 
judges. 

It was discussed in both houses for several weeks, and 
by the newspapers throughout the State, and denounced 
in unstinted terms by all the Whigs and their organs. In 
the meantime every art of coercion and cajoling Avas prac- 
ticed by the Democratic leaders in the Legislature to over- 
come the hesitancy of their timid colleagues and nerve them 
up to its support. At length the bill passed both houses 
and was promptly vetoed by the Supreme Court justices, 
acting, with the Governor, as the Council of Revision. On 
the 11th of February, 1841, the bill was re-enacted over the 
veto by a large majority in the Senate and a bare majority 
of one over the number required by the constitution in the 
House. The Legislature then completed the "reform of 
the judiciar}^, " by electing, in joint session, by a strict 
party vote, the following Democrats for the five additional 
Supreme Court judgeships authorized by the new law : 
Samuel H. Treat, AA'alter B. Scates, Sidney Breese, Stephen 
A. Douglas and Thomas Ford. 

And it must be admitted — to the credit of the party man- 
agers—that five abler men for the bench could not have 
been selected in Illinois from either party at that time. 
Iipon the elevation of Mr. Douglas to the Supreme Bench 
he resigned the office of Secretary of State, and Gov. Carlin 

* See Mr. Snyder's speech on that occasion in Appendix, Note C. It 
is chiefly remarliable for its sophistry, and special pleading in support 
of a desperate measure. 



313 

appointed Lyman Trumbull as his successor. The reor- 
ganization of the judiciary by the Democrats was such a 
highhanded partisan measure for partisan purposes that it 
shocked the people, and was unsparingly condemned by 
all the AVhigs and many conservative Democrats, as an 
outrageous and inexcusable abuse of power. But legisla- 
tion of that order has since been so commonly practiced by 
all parties in power that it now excites no surprise and but 
little comment. 

Sidney Breese had the same inordinate desire for office 
and distinction that afflicted Gov. Reynolds, but was AvhoUy 
wanting in the art of winning the people to his support 
that Reynolds possessed to such a remarkable degree. Ho 
managed, however, to hold office almost continuously dur- 
ing all his residence in Illinois, generally by appointment, 
or vote of the Legislature, being usually rejected by the 
people at the polls. Defeated repeatedly for Representative 
in the lower house of the Legislature, he was finally elected 
to that position in 1851 — his .first success by popular vote — 
and was, at that session, chosen Speaker of the House. By 
popular vote he was elected Circuit Judge in 1855, and ele- 
vated to the Supreme Bench in 1857, and was retained in 
that position— for which he w^as so eminently fitted — by re- 
elections in 1861 and 1870, until his death, that occurred 
at Pinckneyville, 111., on the 27th of June, 1878. 

Judge Breese was born in Whiteboro, Oneida county, 
New York, on the 15th of July, 1800, and graduated at 
Union College when only eighteen years of age. By ad- 
vice of Elias K. Kane, who knew him at college, he came 
to Illinois, arriving at Kaskaskia on the 24th of December, 
1818. He studied law with Mr. Kane and w^as admitted 
to the bar in 1820. In 1821 he secured his first office, that 
of postmaster at Kaskaskia. In 1822 he was appointed 
State's Attorney. On Sept. 17, 1823, he was married to 
Miss Eliza, daughter of Wm. Morrison. In 1827, then an 
ultra Adams man, he was appointed U. S. District Attorney 
and was promptly turned out of office in 1829 by President 



314 

Jackson. He then turned to be a Jackson man and ran 
for Congress bnt was defeated. 

In the Black Hawk campaign of 1832 he enlisted as a 
private in Capt. Feaman's company, and npon organiza- 
tion of the Third regiment was promoted to the rank of 
Major, and was subsequently made Lieut. Colonel to supply 
that place made vacant by resignation of Lieut. Col. Theop- 
hilus W. Smith, promoted to Judge Advocate General. In 
1835 he was elected Circuit Judge by the Legislature, and 
that year left Kaskaskia to locate on a farm in the suburbs 
of Carlvle in Clinton countv. In 18-11 he was elected Su- 
preme Judge by the Legislature, and in 1842 Avas elected, 
by joint ballot of the Legislature, on the 9th of December, 
V. S. Senator, receiving 56 votes to 52 cast for Stephen A. 
Douglas and 3 for Jno. A. McClernand. In 1849 he was 
defeated for re-election to the Senate by Gen'l Shields. 

His passion for public life was such that he would at any 
time have gladly resigned his judgeship for a political of- 
fice, though not its equal in honor or salary. Though pre- 
eminent as a judge he signally failed as a practicing law- 
yer, not from want of learning, but by reason of utter de- 
ficiency in tact and practical sense. He was a captain in 
the militia before his marriage, but as a soldier was ludi- 
crously out of place ; very near sighted, clumsy, awkward 
and an arrant coward. In the Black HaAvk campaign he 
soon tired of service, and obtaining leave of absence, left 
the army and returned to his home, with Gov. Reynolds 
and staff, by Avay of Galena and the Mississippi river. 

He was by no means an eloquent speaker, but a scholarly 
and forcible writer. His newspaper editorials and corre- 
spondence, his Supreme Court Reports from 1819 to 1830, 
his own decisions when Supreme Court Justice, and his 
other public papers, mark well his profound learning and 
highly cultured mind. A life-long, diligent student, well 
versed in English, Latin and French ; also in law, literature 
and science, he was a statesman as well as jurist of the 
highest order. Short and dumpy in figure, Avith large, 



315 

round head and florid face, his natural dignity and re- 
served manners gave him, on the bench and in the Senate* 
a commanding presence commensurate with his great intel- 
lectual abilities. 

As a public official he was absolutely honorable and in- 
corruptible. When with his own circle of genial associates 
he was charmingly social and affable, but had no affinity 
for the common people ; was mean and narrow in his re- 
sentments, and jealous and envious of his competitors. He 
was not a moneymaker, ignorant of practical details of 
business beyond drawing his salary ; was neither charitable 
nor benevolent,, and extremely selfish. 

The stand taken by Mr. Snyder in Congress for reform- 
ing or abolishing the National Military Academy at West 
Point, N. Y., was unequivocally endorsed by the Illinois 
Legislature in the unanimous adoption of the following 
preamble and resolutions presented on Feb. 6th, 1841, by 
Senator Braxton Parish : 

"Whereas, It is one of the principles of a free govern- 
ment. to impose no unnecessary taxes and burdens upon the 
people, and 

''Whereas, The W^est Point Academy was established as 
a nursery for the military genius of our American youth, 
thereby furnishing our army with skillful officers, and giv- 
ing that order of talent a proper direction ; and 

"Whereas, also, The history of that institution, for 
more than twenty years past, has demonstrated the fact 
that it has failed in the objects of its creation, having never 
yet furnished the army a skillful officer of ability, but, on 
the contrary, has been the hotbed of favoritism and aris- 
tocracy; and officers from that institution have, on a late 
occasion, during our Seminole hostilities, shamefully re- 
signed at a time their country expected of them bravery 
and patriotism; thus proving that there is an inherent de- 
fect, as well in the selection, as education, of youths there ; 
therefore 



316 



< i 



Resolved hy the General Assembly, That our Senators 
in Congress be instructed, and our Representatives request- 
ed, to use their endeavors to reform the abuses, not only 
in the selection of candidates to be educated there at the 
X)ublic expense, but in the education itself; and in case 
both these evils cannot be removed, to vote ag-ainst any 
more appropriations of money for said institution. 

^^ Resolved That the Governor transmit a copy of these 
resolutions to each member of our delegation in Congress." 

Mr. Churchill moved to amend said preamble and resolu- 
tions by striking out the preamble and all after the resolv- 
ing clause, and insert the following, viz : 

"That our Senators in Congress be instructed, and our 
Eepresentatives be requested, to endeavor to procure the 
abolition of the Military Academy at West Point." The 
amendment was lost. 

While members of the two opposing parti-es in the 
twelfth General Assembly were fiercely contending for and 
against the conspiracy of the Democrats to reorganize the 
courts in the interest of their party, they all tacitly united 
in enacting measures much less excusable and far more ne- 
farious. The Mormons, settled at Nauvoo, in Hancock coun- 
ty, increased in numbers so rapidly that they then not only 
dominated that county but held the balance of power in 
the elections of the Congressional district, and had become 
a factor in determining the State elections to be seriously 
considered. They were expelled from Missouri by Dem- 
ocrats for whom they had voted, and were treated with 
contempt by Van Buren, the Democratic President to 
whom they appealed for relief and redress. At^that junc- 
ture Mr. Clay, a Whig Senator, and Col. John T. Stuart, 
a Whig Representative of Illinois— Avhose constituents they 
v;ere— championed their cause in Congress and loudly de- 
nounced the Democracy for persecuting them because of 
their religious belief. Fleeing to Illinois for protection 
and safety they renounced their allegiance to the Demo- 
cratic party and affiliated with their friends, the Whigs. 



\ 



317 

In 1840 they voted solidly for Harrison, for Col. John 
T. Stuart for Congress, and the balance of the Whig ticket. 
The Democratic leaders in the Legislature— of whom Adam 
W. Snyder was one of the most prominent — saw the great 
advantage to be gained by conciliating that strange sect, 
who on all political questions voted as a unit ; and, if possi- 
ble, winning them back to the Democratic fold. The 
Whigs, of course, fully appreciated the value of tlieir new 
recruits and were very desirous to retain them. The Mor- 
mons cared nothing for the principles or policies of either 
party. They were mercenaries, willing to barter their 
votes for increased privileges and power to the highest 
bidder. The bid of both parties for the Mormon vote was 
the sacrifice of self-respect, justice and honor. 

Early in the extra session, Nov. 27th, 1840, ]Mr. Little, 
Whig Senator from Hancock County, introduced a bill for 
an "Act to incorporate the City of Navoo," in his county. 
Under that innocent-sounding title the bill granted to the 
Mayor and municipal government of Nauvoo, nine-tenths 
of whose population were IMormons, the most extraordinary 
powers. It was a charter of incorporation, conferring upon 
Jo. Smith, who was Mayor of Nauvoo and head of the 
Mormon church, and his city council, poAver to organize 
their own courts and militia — in a word, to establish a 
government of their own independent of State laws, and 
in conflict with the State's constitution. Mr. Little, when 
Introducing the bill, offered no explanation whatever of its 
provisions. On motion of W^illiam A. Richardson, Demo- 
crat Senator representing Brown and Schuyler counties, 
the rules of the Senate were dispensed with, the bill read a 
second time by its title only, and then, on motion of Mr. 
Little, it was referred to the Judiciary Committee, of which 
he was a member. 

On Dec. 5th, Mr. Snyder, Chairman of that committee, 
"reported the same back with an amendment, which was 
concurred in, and the bill was ordered engrossed, as amend- 
ed, for a third reading." It, and other engrossed bills. 



318 

were not again called up in either house before adjourn- 
ment of the extra session. On the first day of the regular 
session, Dec. 7th, 1840, Mr. Snyder moved adoption of the 
following resolution: "Eesolved 'by the Senate, etc., That 
the unfinished business of the first session of the twelfth 
General Assembly be taken from the files of said session and 
placed on the files of the present session ; and that the said 
unfinished business have the same order in the present ses- 
sion, and be proceeded with in the same manner as it would 
be as if the same had originated at the present session. ' ' An 
amendment was offered by Senator E. D. Baker, placing 
the unfinished business of the extra session of 1839- '40 in 
the same category, which was promptly defeated, and Mr. 
Snyder's resolution, as introduced, adopted. The same 
resolution was adopted in the House, and then the bill to 
"Incorporate the City of Nauvoo" was passed by both 
houses, without discussion or roll call, and without a nega- 
tive vote in either house. It was immediately sent to the 
Council of Revision, comprising the Democrat Governor, 
three Whigs and one Democrat, Justices of the Supreme 
Court, who, within three days, approved it. 

On the 14th of December, 1840, Mr. Little presented 
another bill for an Act "to incorporate a Church at Nau- 
voo," another infamous measure Avhich, by suspension of 
the rules, was, without discussion, protest, or objection, 
passed by the Senate to third reading on the 17th, where- 
upon Mr. Little moved to amend the title of the bill so 
that it would read, "An Act for the appointment of a 
notary public in the City of Nauvoo," which was agreed 
to, and the bill was passed without roll call or a dissent- 
ing voice. Both of Mr. Little's "Mormon Charters" were 
also passed by the House unanimously, as in the Senate, 
without call' of the roll, as no member of either party was 
willing to put himself on record as supporting them. The 
second "charter" was approved by the Council of Revision 
without hesitation, as was the first. A third charter was 
also passed in the same manner. The active managers in 



319 

securing passage of the Mormon charters by the Legisla- 
ture were Senator Little, and Stephen A. Douglas, then 
Secretary of State. 

Mr. Douglas was also particularly active and efficient 
as a lobbyist, in passing the revolutionary measure for 
reforming the courts, and accepted one of the new supreme 
court judgeships it created. 

In 1837, he was one of the prime movers of, and the first 
to introduce in the Legislature, the internal improvement 
scheme that caused the State to totter on the verge of bank- 
ruptcy. In after years, when a United States Senator, he 
effected the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, invented 
"Squatter Sovereignty," wrecked the Democratic party, 
and thereby was instrumental, more than any other one 
person in the country, in preQipitating civil war. Mr. 
Douglas' towering intellect and impressive eloquence had, 
in 1840, already placed him in the front ranks of Illinois 
politicians, and presaged his future brilliant career. The 
power of his great mind influenced State legislation, as it 
afterwards swayed the councils of the nation. His public 
services, extending over a period of the quarter of a cen- 
tury, though not exempt from grave mistakes, were certain- 
ly of great value to the State and country at large. In his- 
tory he justly occupies a high place on the roll of celebrated 
statesmen ; but was the most consummate demagogue of the 
age in which he lived— William E. Gladstone, perhaps, ex- 
cepted. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

The twelfth General Assembly — Letters of Mr. Snyder to Gov. 
Koerner — General Bankruptcy Law passed by Congress — Hard 
Times in Illinois in 1841 — Repudiationists and opposers of the 
Canal — Availability of Mr, Snyder for nomination as a Can- 
didate for Governor — Gov. Reynolds and his friends favor him 
— Mr. Snyder's views on public questions. 

On the 16th of December, 1840, the two houses of the 
twelfth General AssembJy met in joint session to elect ji 
Senator in Congress to succeed Hon. John M. Robinson, and 
Samuel IMcRoberts was elected, receiving 77 votes, Cyrus 
Edwards 50, and E. D. Baker 1. 

The Senator elected, Samuel McRoberts, enjoyed the dis- 
tinction of being the first native of Illinois chosen* 
to that position. He was born in Monroe County, 
Illinois, on the 20th of February, 1799. From the 
country schools of his neighborhood he went to Lex- 
ington, Kentucky, and entered Transylvania University, 
and there held high rank in the classical and law 
departments, in which he graduated in 1819. Returning 
to Illinois he was elected judge of the Circuit Court, and 
held that office until elected to the State Senate in 1828. He 
was later appointed U. S. District Attorney, by President 
Jackson, and resigned that office to accept, from President 
Van Buren, the position of Receiver of the Land Office at 
Danville. On final settlement of his accounts when retiring 
from office the government was found to be in his debt to 
the amount of $1.65, for which he received a treasury war- 
rant. He was next appointed, by President Van Buren, 
in 1839, Solicitor of the General Land Office at Washing- 
ton, which he resigned in the fall of 1841. He died at Cin- 
cinnati, Ohio, March 27th, 1843, of pneumonia contracted 
on the Allegheny mountains on his return home. 

On the 18th of December the Legislature elected Josiah 

* Gen'l John A. Logan, and Hon. Albert J. Hopkins are the only 
two natives of Illinois since elected to represent the State in the 
United States Senate. 



321 

Lamborn, a Democrat, Attorney General, by casting- for him 
75 votes, to 45 for David Woodson, a Whig, and two for 
Richard Yates, another Whig. It also reapportioned the 
State in accordance with the census of 1840, increasing the 
representation to 41 senators and 121 representatives. 

The proceedings of the twelfth General Assembly were 
marred by unusual turbulence, and illy-suppressed bitter- 
ness of feeling between the opposing parties engendered by 
the late fierce political contest through which they had 
passed. Adam W. Snyder, the recognized leader of the 
Democratic party in the Legislature, always at his post, 
answered to every roll call, and entered zealously in every 
debate. As the result of his continued mental and physi- 
cal exertion, however, his overtaxed vital powers failed, 
and before the close of the session he was compelled to 
retire from the Senate chamber to the seclusion of his bed 
room. Incessantly coughing, chilly and feverish, he left 
the Senate in the afternoon of February 19th, and returned 
in a carriage to his room at the American House, and 
sought his bed, where he was confined for five days. By 
an effort of the will be appeared in his seat in the after- 
noon of the 24th, Aveak, but resolute, and for three days 
maintained his accustomed vigilance, when he was again 
forced to take final leave of the Senate. His last official 
act was voting for confirriiation of the Governor's nomina- 
tion of Lyman Trumbull for Secretary of State, and of cer- 
tain directors of the Shawneetown bank. He was excused 
from further attendance, and, on adjournment of the Leg- 
islature, on the 1st of March, 1841, returned, much fa- 
tigued, to his home in Belleville. 

The following letters written during that session of the 
Legislature by ]Mr. Snyder to his friend, Gustavus Koerner, 
at Belleville, are now of historic interest for the light they 
shed upon the spirit that animated the writer, and objects 
and purposes of the party he represented and, to a cer- 
tain extent, controlled. ]\Ir. Koerner was his intimate 
friend to 'whom he ahvays wrote without reserve and with 
—21 



322 

the most familiar fre-c-dom; but, it will be observed, that 
while, in this private and unrestrained correspondence, the 
most important subjects of leo:islation are mentioned, not 
a word was v/ritten relating" to the Mormon charters. It 
may be, however, that his letters conveying information 
regarding those charters were not preserved by Gov. Koer- 
ner; or have since been lost: 

'•'Springfield, Feb. 6th, 1841. 

"Dear Sir: I was much pleased to receive your letter 
informing me of your safe return home, in good health, 
and with the additional satisfaction of finding your little 
family well.* My health has improved some ; but, at best, 
is bad. 

"The inferior court bill, which I have not yet introduced; 
but will next week, you seem to entirely misunderstand. It 
proposes to appoint, by the Legislature, a judge in each 
county to be called the judge of the county court, and 
gives him all the probate jurisdiction (exclusively). Sec- 
ond, it gives him jurisdiction in all actions ex contractu to 
the amount, say, of $250, trover and conversion, trespass 
on personal property, replevin, qui tarn actions on penal 
official bonds and appeals from justices of the peace. To 
be his own clerk, have a jury, hold four terms of court 
each year, keep a record, fee book and execution and 
judgment book. Appeals from his court to the supreme 
court. From the little time remaining of the session I 
doubt if it can pass. I cannot introduce it because the 
Council of Revision yet have the judiciary (reform) bill, 
and will probably return it with objections. It is. doubtful 
whether we can pass it in the House (over their veto) with 
the constitutional majority; as we passed it before with 
but one vote majority. Many of our Democrats are, as 
usual, used up by the opposition, some by promises of land 
offices, others by different inducements. Today the 0)i dit 
is that the bill will not be returned. We will, however, 

* Mr. Koerner had taken the electoral vote of Illinois to W^ashington 
City. 



323 

know on Monday or Tuesday, and I will write you so soon 
as it passes. 

"You can form but little idea of the excitement it has 
caused. It is the lion measure of the session. I succeeded 
in carrying it through the Senate after an animated discus- 
sion of two days, with every Whig and four Democrats 
voting against it. I was in the House when the grand 
fight on it took place. Buying up and buying back was the 
order, and is yet. Not a Whig voted for it in either house. 

"The new apportionment will bring into the next Legis- 
lature 120 members of the House. St. Clair County 
will have three as now, and St. Clair and Madison to- 
gether a fourth. Monroe and Randolph to have a Senator. 
I opposed this enormous increase ; but in vain. 

"I presume we will adjourn on the first of next month 
— not before. I think Mr. Shields will attend the court ; 
at least he told me he would. He will bring Charley Mount 
up here, and afterwards quit practice in that circuit. I 
doubted the propriety of his running for office (State 
Auditor); but he was determined; and then I did all I 
could for him, and successfully." 



i i 



Springfield, Feb. 8th, 1841. 
''Dear Sir: The judiciary (reform) bill was on yes- 
terday returned to the Senate, where it originated, the three 
Whig judges (of the Supreme Court) objecting to the ex- 
pediency of the measure, and Smith to the constitutionality 
of the act. After a most exciting session of six or eight 
hours we passed it again through the Senate by the vote 
of 23 to 16, there being one of the Whig Senators absent. 
I fear much its fate in the House. The AVhigs have bought 
up and intimidated six of our Democrats which gives them 
a majority. The constitution requires each house to cast 
a majority vote of all the members elected to it" in order 
to pass a measure over the veto of the Council of Revision. 
The most intense excitement prevails here in regard to the 
fate of the bill. The Whigs and the judges of the Supreme 



324 

Court together with the bank, are moving heaven and earth 
to defeat it. How frequently the people are deceived by 
their representatives whom they elected upon their profes- 
sions of interest in public affairs, and loyalty to their 
party. The representatives here who are thus misrepre- 
senting their constituents, are from the strongest Democrat- 
ize counties, with but one exception. They are. Able of 
Alexander, Hicks of Jefferson, Leary of Cook and Bussey 
of Champaign. Unless we can secure one of these six the 
bill cannot be passed, and that is now despaired of by our 
friends. 

"Breese has adjourned his court, waiting for the passage 
of the bill in expectation, I suppose, of being elected one 
of the supreme judges. Scates is here, also Ford, all await- 
ing the tide of their elevation. 

"We have various projects for raising State revenue. One 
is a tax of thirty cents on the hundred dollars' worth of 
property— all the land tax to go to the State, and the coun- 
ties not to be permitted to levy over thirty cents on the 
hundred for county purposes. Also, to tax each deed re- 
corded for the transfer of land or other property, fifty cents. 
Tax each lawyer and physician $10 a year for permission to 
practice. Tax the Governor, Secretary of State, Auditor 
and Attorney General $20 annually each, Justices of the 
Peace and Constables, $2 each; militia officers, $1 each, and 
all others in proportion. It is proposed to tax merchants 
likewise, and peddlers for license; which it is expected will 
produce altogether about $380,000 a year. 

''Breese left here without paying the ten dollars you left 
me an order for. Mv wife has written me that she will 
need some money before I return. Will you please hand 
lier ten dollars. I would not ask this, but I have scarcely 
money enough with me here to pay postage. Auditor's 
w^arrants, since the Bank refuses to cash them, are far be- 
low par. I would have borrowed it rather than trouble 
you ; but my friends here, like myself, are without it. ^Ir. 
Engelmann can have my office (building), as, I presume 
'Shields will want it no longer. 



> > 



/ 



325 



( < 



Springfield, Feb. 9th, 1841. 
''Dear Sir: I hasten to inform you that the judiciary 
bill has passed the House by the vote of 46 to 43, precisely 
the constitutional majority, three Democrats voting against 
the bill and two went without the bar refusing to vote. This 
is a great triumph over the Whigs, and the present corrupt 
Supreme Court, who returned the bill with objections be- 
cause they wTre personally interested and actuated by 
political motives. 

"Both* houses have passed a resolution to adjourn on 
the first of March, and, I think, it will not be rescinded. '^ 



Springfield, Feb. 14th, 1841. 

' ' My Dear Sir : Last night, in caucus, we agreed to elect 
Scates, Breese, Treat, Ford and Douglas, Supreme Court 
justices. I pressed the claims of General John ]\I. Robin- 
son, and got for him twenty-seven votes ; but could not suc- 
ceed, for the reason that it w^as doubted whether he was 
competent, owing to his long absence from the courts, — 
and probably it is right. Douglas is talented, but too young 
for the office. On the whole, however, w^e could not do much 
better than elect him. 

"On day before yesterday I succeeded in passing through 
my "little court" bill. It met with one amendment in the 
Senate, and that was to direct appeals from the County' 
Court to the Circuit Court instead of the Supreme Court, 
not to be retried on their merits but on the law. I doubt 
much if it can pass the House, from the shortness of time to 
act, and the great timidity of many of our tender-footed 
Democrats. 

"McClernand is again an applicant for the office of 
Secretary of State since Douglas' promotion to the Su- 
preme bench. I hardly think he will get it. I. N. Morris, 
whom the Governor brought here wuth him at the com- 
mencement of the session, is still hanging on and pressing 
his claims. The mass of our party here are for McCler- 
nand. He may yet succeed; but I doubt it. 



326 



( ( ' 



Who would do for County Judo^e, in event of my bill 
passing, in our county? Do you know. I think it ^\ill 
pay $1,500 a year in that county for the next two or three 
years. Would you have it! You know, if so, I would 
prefer you to any other. I doubt, however, whether the 
bill can possibly pass the House. 

"I suppose the Whigs in Belleville, as elsewhere, are 
bitter in denouncing the acts of this Legislature. But now 
we have a Democratic Supreme Court, Auditor, Secretary 
of State, and Fund Commissioner ; and have repealed out of 
office three AVhig internal improvement commissioners, 
three Whig State house commissioners, four Whig circuit 
judges, and various other AYhig officers ; for, in truth,, we 
found Whigs in office everywhere. Then with the Demo- 
cratic measures and laws we passed, this Legislature must 
be sorely grievous to their Federal notions. Whether or 
not we can sustain ourselves two years longer is in the 
"womb of time." But, be that as it may, we will have 
discharged our duty to our Democratic constituents, and 
furthered Democratic principles. I suppose you heard that 
on passage of the judiciary bill the Supreme Court, in order 
to defeat it, decided the alien case; Smith deciding that by 
the constitution aliens had the right to vote ; the others de- 
ciding that if a voter took the oath prescribed by our law 
his vote could not be rejected, cautiously reserving the 
great constitutional question to be decided when the stroke 
might ruin our party— to such mean shifts did they resort 
to defeat the bill. At the June term their opinions were 
made up on the constitutional right of aliens to vote and 
stated they were prepared to ^ive it; but, owing to a de- 
fect in the record, they did not; yet, they would cringe to 
secure themselves from performing a little labor, and for 
party purposes. I feel much gratification in now having 
a court that will decide all questions of a political character 
upon that broad basis of liberality which suits, and con- 
formsto, the principles we mutually entertain. 

"I have no idea of running for Congress if things will 



327 

• 
work along' without me. I suppose I will have to run for 

Governor. We must prepare to hold a convention in our 
congressional district. "Sly own opinion is that Hacker will 
run anyhow; and the truth is, in conversing with the dele- 
gation from many parts of the south, he will, I find, carry 
several Democratic counties there, and all the Whigs in the 
district. I assure you Reynolds is not popular with the 
representatives from his district, and, as they say, not with 
the people either. They say he is worn out, and they 
are all tired of him. I prefer him to Hacker ; but, I assure^ 
you, I will support him only because of party considera- 
tions. If ]\rcClernand is appointed Secretary of State, I 
know of no one else we can nominate ; but in the event 
that Col. McClernand is not appointed I would prefer him 
(for Congress) to either of the others. Running Reynolds 
would be an up hill business ; for his popularity is gone. 

The county judges (provided for in the bill) are to be 
elected, under the constitution, during good behavior; so, if 
the Whigs should ever get the power they could not get 
them out excepting by repealing the courts, and if the 
courts were popular, they could not do it. 



y > 



( I 



"Springfield, Feb. 21st, 1841. 
Dear Sir : I suppose you have learned that the ' ' little 
courts" bill failed to pass in the House, as I predicted. Our 
men were too timid. They thought we had revolutionized 
enough, and so it is lost. We still have passed no revenue 
bill, and have done nothing to sustain the credit of the 
State. The very men who voted for the internal improve- 
ment system and run the State millions in debt, are afraid 
to vote one cent of taxes on their constituents to sustain 
the tottering credit of the State. The Bank has suspended 
specie payment, and, I fear, will obtain enough votes here 
to legalize its suspension. In the House there is no doubt 
it already has a majority; but in the Senate, I still hope, we 
will be able to prevent it. 



328 



i I 



Breese is here, delighted with his promotion. The new 
judges are a fine array. Entre nous, I think Trumbull will 
be appointed Secretary of State in place of Douglas, re- 
signed. Breese will appoint a new Clerk of the court in St. 
Clair County. I am again sick, confined to my bed.'' 

The twelfth General Assembly authorized organization 
pf the Counties of Grundy, Henderson, Kendall. ^Mason, 
Piatt, Richland and Woodford, making the total number 
of counties in the State ninety-four. 



Congress, in March 1841, passed a general bankruptcy law 
that served — before its repeal in 1813— to relieve many dis- 
honest rascals from their just obligations, thereby adding 
to the financial distress of their honest and confiding credi- 
tors. Plain larceny, or burglary, is more honorable than 
that mode of legalized robbery; for in the former there is 
no violation of confidence. 

Reorganization of the courts by the Legislature, though 
instigated, as it was, by party considerations alone, was 
really an improvement upon the former judiciary system 
of the State, by placing upon the circuits highly compe- 
tent judges who rendered more efficient service; and mak- 
ing the Supreme Court an exceptionally able and dignified 
tribunal. The Mormon charters and national bankruptcy 
law — twin abominations — were only preliminary to many 
other evils that afflicted the people of Illinois in 1841. Ces- 
sation of railroad building, and collapse of innumerable 
private enterprises and schemes for speculation that fol- 
lowed the sudden reaction in financial affairs, brought the 
State and the people to the very verge of ruin. Traffic in 
real estate was totally paralyzed ; commerce and trade stag- 
nated. Values of property and farm products fell thirty 
to fifty per cent. All wanted to sell, and there were no 
purchasers. Debts had been contracted by almost everyone 
during the flush times of universal credit, and very few 
had the ability to pay. 



329 

The banks, already suspended, were on the brink of fail- 
ure, and the next year went down carrying ruin and dis- 
aster in their train. Their notes already depreciated from 
twelve to fifteen per cent, steadily went doAvn lower. The 
State was in debt over $300,000 for ordinary expenses of 
maintaining its government, and the State treasury was 
empty, not having in its vaults sufficient funds to pay 
postage on its correspondence. No further effort was made 
to pay interest on the public debt, and the State's internal 
improvement bonds fell in selling price to as low as four- 
teen cents to the dollar. There was no sound money in 
the State ; the onl}^ medium of circulation being notes of 
banks in other States and tliose of the Illinois banks, with 
few exceptions depreciated, and of doubtful value. In 
business transactions, in which payments were made, a 
"Bank Note Detector" was indispensable to ascertain the 
latest discounts on the several bank notes quoted. Com- 
mercial failures, and recourse to the law for collection of 
debts, caused much distress, and reduced many to absolute 
want. 

Gen'l Harrison Avas inaugurated to the Presidency on 
the fourth of March, 1841, and died a month later. He was 
succeeded by Vice President Tyler, who nullified the great 
Whig victory of the year before by a complete change of 
policy. He placed in his cabinet John C. Calhoun, a Demo- 
crat, as Secretary of State, and blasted the cherished hopes 
of the Whigs for reestablishing the National Bank. The 
Whigs failed signally to make good their vaunted promises 
made during the coonskin campaign, to restore ''good 
times" that would ensure to laboring men "two dollars a 
day and roast beef " ; but instead, wages were reduced, times 
became much harder, and the Democrats elected the next 
Congress, and annexed Texas. There is always a numerous 
class of our people who hold the party in power responsible 
for calamities occurring to the comitry from natural causes, 
such as general failure of crops, financial panics, and even 
visitations of cholera, or other malignant epidemics. The 



330 

Whigs were unfortunate in having gained their only nation- 
al victory at the time when the whole country was com- 
mercially prostrated by recent collapse of wild internal 
improvement projects and bank suspensions, for which their 
party had, somehow, to bear the blame. In Illinois the 
Whig party continued its organization with barely strength 
enough to keep the Democratic party united by its oppo- 
sition until 1856, when transformed into the Republican 
party, with large accession of former Democrats, it elected 
Col. Bissell, Governor, by a majority of 4,732, though at the 
same election the Democrats carried the State for Buchan- 
an for President by 9,159. 

]\Ir. Snyder's health, that for four years had gradually 
declined, was somewhat recuperated by rest and return of 
warmer weather. He passed much of his time in the open 
air, combatting by every known agency the encroachments 
of the inexorible disease that had marked him for its vic- 
tim. ^Mingling with the people as usual— meeting all with 
his accustomed friendly interest, he discussed with them 
the gloomy aspect of affairs in Avhich they were all vitally 
concerned. Always an optimist, he was disposed to a more 
cheerful view of the situation than present facts really 
warranted. Hard times, occasioned by depression of busi- 
ness and scarcity of money, he argued, were but temporary, 
and would soon be dispelled by influx of immigration and 
increasing wealth and rapid development of the State's re- 
sources. The State, he said, was young and strong, and 
could, by careful management, easily overcome the calami- 
ties resulting from unfortunate mistakes of the last few 
years, and restore confldence and prosperity. In his opin- 
ion, no honorable man could for a moment harbor the 
thought of repudiating either public or personal obliga- 
tions legally contracted ; but, on the contrary, would do all 
in his power to eft'ect a fair and honest adjustment of all 
liabilities. 

With undiminished industry he continued his profes- 
sional work and other ordinary pursuits, without relaxing 



331 

his interest, and influence, in the management of his poli- 
tical party in the State. He was constantly in the care 
of one or more competent physicians, and observed every 
precautionary measure advised by them for improvement of 
his health. As usual, he paid the penalty of his prominent 
social and public position in not being- permitted to dwell 
in solitude or quietude. Politicians from all parts of the 
State came to consult him about the welfare of the party, 
or their own ; old friends called to see him, clients, doctors, 
laA\^'ers, editors, paid him attentions that often extended 
to annoyance and were positively detrimental to his im- 
paired physical condition. lie might Avell have prayed to 
be saved from his friends; but, grateful for their friend- 
ship, confidence and sympathy, he entertained them all 
with his accustomed courteous cheerfulness. 

Until adoption of the constitution of 1847, State elections 
in Illinois were held on the first Monday in August. From 
breaking up of ^^'inter until August the agricultural classes 
Avere busily engaged with their crops and harvests and had 
no time to spare to attend political meetings and listen to 
public discussions. Consequently, aspirants to office usually 
began their campaigns early in the year preceding that of 
the election, sometimes in the spring before, in order to 
obtain a hearing, and expression of views from the people, 
especially the farmers, at the season when they were most 
at leisure. So it was that in the spring of 1841 there already 
was manifested general interest in the selection of candi- 
dates for the various oilfiices to be voted for in August, 1842. 
An additional reason for early interest in that election was 
the extraordinary financial embarrassment of the State and 
people. Party feeling was still intense, and each party, by 
promising to extricate the State from existing difficulties, 
hoped to gain or retain ascendency in the State govern- 
ment. Neither party, however, had adopted a definite line 
of policy to guide their action in future State legislation, 
and few, if any, applicants for office dared to commit them- 
selves to the support of measures that might possibly be 



332 

distasteful to the people. Many, too, of both parties openly 
advocated repudiation of the entire State debt incurred for 
internal improvements. 

"With the exception of that portion of the Northern Cross 
road from Meredosia to Springfield, work on all the \)yo- 
jected railroads was discontinued. Excavation of the Illi- 
nois and Michigan Canal was still prosecuted with vigor by 
a large force of laborers. That the canal, looked upon by 
many as a sectional enterprise designed to benefit but a 
limited northern locality, should be pushed ahead at pub- 
lic expense when all improvements south of a central line 
were abandoned, created much dissatisfaction and jealousy, 
particularly in the southern counties. For and against 
completion of the canal therefore became an issue upon 
which candidates for office Avere called upon to define their 
.position. 

The leading politicians in the twelfth General Assembly 
found time in intervals of their arduous labors, to discuss 
the availability of candidates for the general election in 
1842. By almost unanimous agreement the choice of the 
Democrats for Governor, to succeed Gov. Carlin, was Adam 
W. Snyder. No one else w^as seriously considered in that 
connection. Many of the Democratic newspapers of the 
State at once placed his name at the head of their editorial 
columns as their first choice for the place. Public meetings 
were held by the Democracy in Perry, Bond, Cass, St. 
Clair, Washington and other counties, and resolutions 
adopted by them strongly recommending him for the nom- 
ination. Gov. Revnolds and the entire Reynolds faction 
were among his active supporters. 

Candor was a preeminent trait of ]Mr. Snyder's character. 
He had convictions, and expressed them frankly whenever 
occasion required him to do so. His views upon public 
questions were never doubtful or ambiguous, and they were 
generally known by the people. To that characteristic was 
due much of his strength as a leader. Relying upon his 
honesty of purpose and sound judgment, Democrats who 



333 

disagreed with him on niinor points, waived their differ- 
ences of opinion, and were his unfailing friends. 

The long political campaign preparatory to the August 
election of 1842 was formally opened by a large mass meet- 
ing of Democrats at Belleville on the 18th of July, 1841. 
Mr. Snyder, loudly called for by the assembled people, ad- 
dressed them for an hour in a manner that stirred his 
audience to a high pitch of enthusiasm. Without hesitation 
he boldly declared himself in favor of speedy completion of 
the Illinois and Michigan Canal ; of imposing additional 
taxes to provide State revenue; of reduction of public ex- 
penses so far as was consistent with the State's welfare; 
of reducing the number of representatives in the Legis- 
lature; of total disconnection of the State and banks, and 
of strict fulfillment of all legal contracts made by the State, 
in which value was received. His views were adopted, by 
resolutions, as the voice of the meeting, and by the Demo- 
cratic party of the State as its platform of principles in the 
approaching contest. 

Discussion of public questions and of probable candi- 
dates; the cheerless aspect of business; the new Supreme 
Court ; default of interest payment on the internal improve- 
ments debt; the bankrupt law; the defection of President 
Tyler to the party that elected him; bitterness of party 
spirit, and prevailing depression, suspense and uneasiness, 
kept the people of Illinois in a ferment of excitement and 
unrest all through the summer of 1841. But, neither failure 
of banks, or gigantic State debt, hard times, or fear of tax- 
ation, checked the stream of immigrants pouring into the 
State. Calamities, deplored by the people, lowered values 
of property, and thus offered tempting inve«;tments for for- 
eign capital. In that way the misfortunes of the State con- 
tributed to its ultimate benefit ; as many of the new comers, 
attracted by inviting opportunities, brought capital and 
employed it in substantial enterprises and improvements. 

Mr. Snj^der remained at home, making no journeys be- 



334 

yond the limits of St. Clair County, excei^ting an occasional 
visit to St. Louis. Early in September lie went one day 
to Lebanon, twelve miles northeast of Belleville, accom- 
panied by his entire family, and there entered his two older 
sons, AVilliam H. and Frederick A., as freshmen in 
McKendree college, from which venerable institution they 
graduated in due time. He drove there again, with his 
wife and youngest son, to see them, at intervals of a few 
weeks until the rigors of winter confined him to his home. 
AVhen in Lebanon, on those pleasant excursions, he was en- 
tertained at the Mermaid Tavern, whose portly and affable 
landlord was Capt. Lyman Adams, a Connecticut sea cap- 
tain, who abandoned the briny deep for quiet rural life 
near the border of beautiful Looking Glass Prairie. His 
tavern, scurrilously described by Charles Dickens in the 
account he gave in his American Notes, of his visit to the 
Prairie in 1842, was a large, old-fashioned, two-story frame 
building, on the southeastern corner of the public square. 
The name of the house was designated by a large sign 
board, six by four feet square, on the top of a tall, stout 
post planted on the road side near the street corner, on 
each side of which was painted a charming mermaid stand- 
ing on her curved tail on the green waves, holding in her 
left hand a looking glass, and with her right hand combing 
her long golden tresses. 

In the meantime the friends and admirers of ]\Ir. Snyder 
in all parts of the State Avere industriously pressing his 
claims to the nomination for Governor. The following 
letter from the columns of the Springfield State Register, 
is a sample of many of the same import appearing in the 
Democratic papers of the State : 

''Bloomington, III., Oct. 3d, 1841. 

"Gentlemen: In traveling through some of the north- 
ern counties, including Logan, De Witt and ^IcLean, I Avas 
pleased to find that there is but one opinion with respect 
to a candidate for Governor. Adam W. Snyder, of St. 
Clair County, is the man fixed upon by the people for the 



335 

office wherever I have been, and, so far as- I can learn, 
throughout the State. It is highly gratifying to see such 
unanimity on the subject. I know him well and can safely 
say that the people of the State c^innot make a wiser or 
worthier choice. He is identified with the State and its 
interests ever since the founding of our StUte government. 
He is emphatically a western man — a fearless, talented, 
manly statesman, and sound, unflinching Democrat— in a 
word, he is a man of the people. A Democrat." 

Mr. Snyder was grateful for the loyalty of his friends 
and party to his interests in his aspirations for distinction 
and high position in the State; but the zealous ambition 
that prompted his earlier political efforts was measurably 
subdued by his protracted illness and gloomy prospects for 
much longer resisting it. Pie exerted himself very little 
to secure the nomination, as he felt assured the convention 
would tender it to him unasked, and concluded, if it did so, 
he would enter the campaign as standard bearer of the Illi- 
nois Democracy, actuated as much by sense of duty and 
obligation as from anv earnest desire for the office of Gov- 
ernor. He was a firm, unswerving partisan, valuing suc- 
cess of the cause he believed to be right above all personal 
honors; and for that end would willingly make any rea- 
sonable personal sacrifice. 

In October, 1841, a meeting of the Peoria Democracy was 
held in that city for the purpose of selecting: delegates to 
represent Peoria County in the Democratic State Conven- 
tion called to meet in December, at Springfield. The dele- 
gates then and there chosen, regarding completion of the 
Illinois and Michigan Canal of vital importance to their 
county and section of the State, adressed a note of inquiry 
to each of several prominent men who had been, more or 
less, mentioned as probable candidates before the convention 
for nomination for Governor, to ascertain their views upon 
the canal question. To their note sent Mr. Snyder he at 
once answered as follows : 



336 



i c 



I i 



Belleville, III., Oct. 31st, 1841. 
Messrs. W. H. Thompson, Alec. DunlxVP, N. H. Purple 
AND Onslow Peters, Delegates to the Democratic Con- 
vention, at Springfield, from Peoria County: 
' ' Gentlemen : . 

"I have received your letter of the 18th inst. propound- 
ing' certain interrogatories, enclosed with the 'Proceedings 
of the Peoria meeting for appointment of Gubernatorial 
delegates. ' 

' ' The following are the interrogatories : ' 1st. Are you 
in favor of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, and of com- 
pleting its construction at an early day^ 

' ' ' 2d. If you should receive the nomination of the Dem- 
ocratic Convention to be holden at Springfield in Decem- 
ber next, and should you be elected Governor of this State 
at the ensuing August election, would you use your official 
influence and power to procure an early completion of the 
canal ; and would you be in favor of using the revenues 
and credit of the State to effect that object so far as it can 
be done without manifest injustice and oppression to any 
portion of the State?' 

''To both interrogatories- I unhesitatingly answer in the 
affirmative. 

"I do not deem it necessarv to enter into the numerous 
reasons that could have frequently been given why the 
canal should be completed, and consequently Avill trouble 
you with but few. In my opinion the speedy completion of 
the canal would do much to inspire confidence in the State, 
and elevate its credit and character abroad. It would great- 
ly increase the value of our products and property. The 
tolls derived from it, and the value imparted by its comple- 
tion to the canal lands, would aid us in the payment of our 
interest, and enable the State to progress with other useful 
improvements. 

"After the expenditure of four millions of dollars, the 
work very far towards completion, I cannot entertain the 



337 

idea for a moment that it will be abandoned. Every con- 
sideration of sound policy and State pride would forbid it. 

"I look forward with much confidence to its early comple- 
tion, and, whether in a public or private capacity, my 
humble but zealous efforts will be found promoting that 
result. 

"I am, very respectfully your ob'd'nt servant, 

"A. W. Snyder. 

''To Messrs. W. H. Thompson, &c., Delegates, &c." 

The Peoria Press published above letter and added, "No 
replies from other gentlemen addressed on the subject, have, 
as yet, been received. 



J J 



—22 



CHAPTER XVII. 

The Democratic State Convention of 1841 — Mr. Snyder nominated 
for Governor — Resigns his office of State Senator — His continued 
ill health — The Mormons declare in his favor — Dr. Joseph Green 
— Gen'l Joseph Duncan chosen by the Whigs as their candidate for 
Governor — Death and burial of Mr. Snyder — Removal of his 
remains. 

The Democratic State Convention, called to nominate can- 
didates of the party for Governor and Lieutenant Governor, 
met at Springfield on the 5th of December, 1841. It was 
a representative gathering of the Illinois Democracy, with 
delegates from 88 of the 96 counties in attendance. Mr. 
Snyder did not attend the convention. 

The delegates from St. Clair County were Gustavus Koer- 
ner, AVilliam H. Underwood, Philip B. Foulke, David W. 
Hopkins, John Sheet, John Simpson, Henry W. Moore and 
Phillip Penn. 

The convention was organized by election of Major Wil- 
liam Edmonson, of McDonough County, temporary chair- 
man, who, after thanking the assemblj^ for the honor, in a 
short but spirited speech, appointed the usual committees, 
on permanent organization, credentials, resolutions, etc. 
The time occupied by deliberations of the committees was 
utilized by eminent Democrats in addressing the large as- 
semblage ' ' on the issues of the day. ' ' 

Reports of the committees were offered and adopted. That 
on permanent organization recommended Hon. Revill W. 
English, of Greene County, for permanent presiding offi- 
cer, and the convention unanimously confirmed their choice. 
Nominations for a candidate for Governor being then in 
order. Major Edmonson arose, and in an eloquent and 
earnest speech, interrupted and endorsed by loud and fre- 
quent bursts of applause, placed Hon. Adam W. Snyder, 
of St. Clair County, in nomination as the convention's 
choice for the office of Governor of Illinois. A delegate 



339 

from Union County then olYered for the same position, 
Hon. Milton W. Alexander, of Edgar County. On call of 
the counties by the Secretary, 148 delegates voted for the 
nomination of ^Ir. Snyder, and 11 for Mr. Alexander; 
whereupon the President of the convention declared that 
Hon. Adam W. Snyder, having received a majority of all 
the votes cast, was the chosen candidate of the party for 
Governor. 

For Lieutenant Governor, five aspirants were offered to 
the convention to be balloted for, namely: John Moore, 
of McLean Qounty; SamuelHackleton, of Lee; Peter Cart- 
wright, of Sangamon ; AVilliam A. Richardson, of Schuyler, 
and ^Milton K. Alexander, of Edgar. On the fifth ballot 
Mr. Moore received 66 votes, Mr. Hackelton 5, j\L\ Cart- 
wright 17, Mr. Richardson 48, and Mr. Alexander 5. Mr. 
Moore was therefore declared the nominee for Lieutenant 
Governor, having received a majority of the votes of all 
the delegates. Mr. Morris, an Adams County delegate, then 
offered the following resolution: '^Resolved, That this 
Convention now unanimously nominate Adam W. Snyder 
of St. Clair County, for Governor, and John Moore,* of 
McLean County, for Lieutenant Governor," which was 
adopted with ringing cheers and other demonstrations of 
approval. The convention, having no further busness be- 
fore it, then adjourned. 

When the result was known in Belleville a large con- 
course of citizens, of both parties, called upon Mr. Snyder 

* John Moore was I'orn in Lincolnshire, England, Sept. 8th, 1793, 
and came tc Illinois in 1S30, settling on a farm in Mcl^ean County. 
He was elected to represent that county in the lower house of the 
State Ivegislaturo in the tenth and eleventh General Assemblies, 1836 
to 1840; and elected to the State Senate in 1840. He was elected Lieu- 
tenant Governor on the ticket with Thomas Ford, in 1842, receiving- 
45,567 votes to 38,426 given his Vl''hig opponent, William H. Henderson 
of Putnam county. At the outbreak of the Mexican war. in 1846, he 
enlisted as a private soldier, and, in organization of the Fourth regi- 
ment of Illinois volunteers, was elected its Lieutenant Colonel, and 
served through the war with marked credit. In 1848 he was appointed 
State treasurer to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of Milton 
Carpenter. In 1850 he was elected to that office, and continued, by 
re-elections, serving with ability and fidelity, in that office until 1857, 
earning for his faithfulness to his trust the title of "honest" John 
Moore. He died, honored and esteemed by all who knew him, on thy 
23d of September, 1863. 



340 

to congratulate him upon his nomination, with fervent hopes 
for his speedy restoration to health. Of his election not 
the least doubt was entertained by any. Advancing win- 
ter had already told with depressing effect upon his shat- 
tered system; but, cheered and invigorated by the spon- 
taneous and cordial homage of his fellow citizens, he ral- 
lied and in a brief and feeling speech announced his readi- 
ness to lead his party in the approaching contest ; and, with 
heartfelt gratitude, expressed his appreciation of their kind 
solicitude for his welfare. AVhen notified by the Secretary 
of the convention of his nomination he immediately resigned 
his office of State Senator. 

The action of the convention met the full approbation 
of all the Democratic papers of the State; and the candi- 
dates it presented were enthusiastically endorsed in terms 
of which the following extract from an editorial of the 
Springfield State Register, of Dec. 17th, 1841, is a fair sam- 
ple. ' ' Col. Adam W. Snyder, of St. Clair County, and John 
Moore, Esq., of McLean, who have been nominated as Dem- 
ocratic candidates for Governor and Lieutenant Governor 
by the convention are well known by our people generally, 
particularly the former. They are known as honest, high- 
minded and patriotic men, devoted to the principles of the 
Democratic faith, and to the welfare of the State. Few 
men in the Avestern countrv stand higher in intellectual 
strength than Col. Snyder. He is known as one possessing 
the brightest order of talents, great strength of mind, and 
•energy of character. Mr. Moore is known as a plain far- 
mer, a hard working man— possessing excellent talents and 
much firmness and energy, &c." 

The Shelhyville Herald of Jan. 3d, 1842, said in part: 
*' There is no man more generally or more favorably known 
to the people of Illinois than Col. Snyder. He has resided 
in the State for more than twenty years, during which 
time he represented the people of his county and district 
dn both the State and National Legislatures. As a man of 



341 

talents Col. Snyder ranks among the first in Illinois, and 
even the tongue of slander has never yet dared to assail 
his private character." 

No State convention was called by the AVhigs, but shortly 
after adjournment of the Democratic convention, a caucus 
of leading- Whigs of the State agreed upon Gen'l Joseph 
Duncan, of Morgan County, as the candidate of their party 
for Governor, and William II. Henderson, of Putnam Coun- 
ty, for Lieutenant Governor. Up to that time the Mormon 
attitude in relation to the political parties of the State was 
very uncertain. Consequently, the people of Nauvoo, and 
the extraordinary privileges and powers granted them by 
the last Legislature w^ere mentioned with respectful caution, 
if mentioned at -all, in connection with the next election, by 
the press and leaders of either party. The Mormons hav- 
ing voted the Whig ticket at the last general election, and 
their demands upon the twelfth General Assembly having 
been championed successfully by Mr. Little, their Whig 
Senator, the Whig leaders fondly hoped they might again 
rely upon the united Mormon support at future elections. 
The leading Democrats, however, were neither asleep nor 
idle, but very alert. To Stephen A. Douglas, then a justice 
of the Supreme Court, they delegated the management of 
the Mormons, and his blandishments were successful in 
turning the scale of Mormon influence in favor of his party. 
Having duly considered the arguments advanced by Judge 
Douglas in support of the Democratic party and its candi- 
date for Governor, Jo. Smith, the Mormon Prophet and 
leader, absolute in his realm in political as well as ecclesias- 
tical matters, published a proclamation, in the Nauvoo pa- 
pers, declaring Judge Douglas "a master spirit," and ex- 
horting his people to vote for Mr. Snyder. 

His exhortation, equivalent to a command, blasted every 
hope of the Whigs for aid in that quarter. Seeing they 
were out-general ed by the Democrats, their leader, Gov. 
Duncan, determined to make, if possible, the Mormon char- 
ters the main question of the canipaign. The Democrats 



342 

would, without doubt, have pursued the same course had 
Jo Smith decided to give his support to the Whigs. Mr. 
Snyder when chairman of the State Judiciary Committee 
to wdiom the infamous measures, concocted by Senator Lit- 
tle were referred, had reported them favorably, and they 
were passed without roll call, or a dissenting" vote from 
any member of either party; then approved by the Coun- 
cil of Revision, a majority of whom were Whigs. 

Morally, the two parties were equally guilty of degrad- 
ing justice and prostituting legislative poAver for party 
ends. But, the Democrats were in the ascendency in both 
houses of the Legislature that legalized those measures, and 
obviously, could have defeated their passage, and did not. 
Consequently, as their party was, by the majority principle 
underlying Democratic, or Republican, govermnent, justly 
held responsible for all legislation when in power, Mr. 
Snyder was estopped from pleading Whig agency in the 
enactment of those outrageous ^Mormon charters. 

In the year elapsed since they Avere granted the Mormons 
had gained large accessions to their numbers by immigra- 
tion, and had grown to be a voting factor of great power 
in State elections. Alarmed by their rapidly in-creasing 
strength the "Gentile" citizens regarded them with, sus- 
picion and distrust. The Mormons, conscious of the ad- 
vantage they held, became arrogant and insolent, and the 
friction between the two soon ripened to open hostilities. 
The Whig press and orators all over the State took up the 
cause of the settlers, and charged the Mormons with law- 
lessness, crime and every species of moral and social cor- 
ruption and wickedness; and contended that candidates 
supported by their votes were no better than Mormons 
themselves. They had become very odious to the citizens of 
Hancock County outside of Nauvoo, and were, no doubt, 
very undesirable neighbors. To the growing aversion to 
them, spreading over the State, Gov. Duncan appealed, and 
upon that sentiment alone based his hope of election. 

Mr. Snyder was confined to his I'oom all winter, much of 



343 

the time to his bed, wasted by distressing cough, hectic 
fever, and other usual symptoms of the dreadful disease 
that for almost five years had been insiduously sapping his 
vitality. Through the long bleak winter he battled hero- 
ically for an extension of his lease of life. He resisted the 
inevitable with all the force of his strong will. He had 
but little fear of death, and still less, if possible, of the 
mythical future; but earnestly desired a few years respite 
from that doom for the welfare of his family by his further 
exertions; and for attaining the goal of his financial and 
political aspirations. The best physicians accessible at- 
tended him daily, and exhausted their knowledge and skill 
and all available resources of medical art for his aid. He 
was surrounded by all comforts and luxuries to be procured, 
regardless of expense. The markets far and near were 
drawn upon for delicacies to tempt his feeble appetite and 
sustain his failing strength. Drug stores were in daily 
requisition for the latest and most efticacious remedies and 
appliances to stay or mitigate the ravages of the pitiless 
malady. Friends, of both parties and all creeds, clustered 
around him, exerting themselves to cheer and encourage 
him and otherwise lighten the dreariness of his affliction. 
At times he was very despondent: and again, buoyed up — 
a^ all consumptives are — by flattering hope of overcoming, 
at least for a time, the horrid scourge that held him in its 
grasp, his eyes sparkled and cheeks flushed with animation, 
as he spoke with confident eagerness of the contest he ex- 
pected soon to be engaged in. 

In February, 1842, the death of an old and trusted friend 
cast over him a shade of melancholy and dejection with 
dispiriting effect. Dr. Joseph Green, for many years his 
physician and intimate associate, was— as himself — a victim 
of the same fatal disease that was nearing its final ex- 
haustive stage when the cold breath of incoming winter, at 
the close of 1841, confined them both to their respective 
homes, situated but the distance of a rifle shot apart. Dr. 
Green was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, in February, 



344 

1784, and came to Belleville in 1817, where he resided the 
remainder of his life. In 1822 he married the widow of 
Alphonso C. Stuart who was killed by Timothy Bennet in 
a duel at Belleville in 1819. In 1827 Dr. Green issued The 
Weste7ni Neivs, the first newspaper published in St. Clair 
County; and, in 1836, he was elected to represent that 
County in the Legislature. Natives of the same State, ar- 
riving in Illinois about the same time, entertaining many 
views in common, and, both members of the Masonic order, 
iJr. Green and Mr. Snyder were, from their first acquaint- 
ance, unflagging friends. Unable longer to visit each other, 
they had recourse to almost daily written correspondence, 
to while away the tedium of their doleful imprisonment, 
and inspire each other with hope, that both knew was base- 
less. Dr. Green's last communication to Mr. Snyder, dated 
Feb. 15th, was filled Avith feeling expressions of his life- 
long friendship and esteem, and concluded Avith the most 
touching and pathetic farewell. His death followed in a 
few davs— on the 20th of February, 1842. 

With iron determination ]\Ir. Snvder still contended 
bravely with the merciless enemy in the continued unequal 
combat. The long, cheerless winter wore slowly away, and 
Avhen the blustery month of March was ushered in with roar- 
ing blast, contrary to all expectations, he revived percepti- 
bly. As spring advanced Nature resumed her smiling aspect 
of sunshine and verdure and bursting buds, tempting the 
invalid to emerge from his w^earisome hibernation into the 
fresh, invigorating air. Daily carriage exercise gave him 
some increase of strength and animation. In April he 
walked daily to his office and the court house during the 
spring term of circuit court and a-ttended to some matters 
of legal business. 

xit that time Judge John Milton Scott, who in after years 
became an eminent justice, and chief justice, of the Illinois 
Supreme Court, and who left at his death an estate valued 
at $200,000, was operating a wool carding machine for 
William C. Davis, in Belleville, at a salary of $7 per month 



345 

and board, and employed his spare time in readin^' law 
books loaned to him by William C. Kinney. He Avas born 
and educated in St. Clair County, and was personally ac- 
quainted Avith Yir. Snyder of Avhom he remarks :* ' ' Adam 
Wilson Snyder was one of the lawyers of recognized ability 
and worth that constituted the early bar of the Supreme 
Court, and achieved distinction at the bar in law and in 
advocacy. * * * He had many qualities that fitted 
him for politics. Perhaps he had more fondness for j^oli- 
tics than for the law. In 1834 he was a candidate for Con- 
gress, but was defeated by Gov. llejaiolds. Between the 
two there was a constant rivalry. The contest was renewed 
in 1886, when he overcome Reynolds and Avas elected a 
member of Congress. Mr. Snyder conducted an able and 
vigorous campaign— not ahvays, however, devoid of some 
bitterness. He was too honorable and dignified in his bear- 
ing to cope successfully A\ith Gov. Reynolds in the low 
arts of the mere politician. In 1841, "Slv. Snyder was nom- 
inated by the Democratic Convention for Governor of the 
State, and would Avithout doubt have been elected had he 
liA^ed till the time of election. 

NotAA^ithstanding he AA^as so much engaged in political 
and business affairs, he still practiced laAv Avith a good 
measure of success. Perhaps the last legal argument he 
ever made Avas made in the old court house in Belleville, 
rendered notably famous by the description of its location 
given by ]\Ir. Dickens in his American Notes, Av^hich, by the 
Avay, is as meanly untrue as anything he ever Avrote. * * 
* * When Mr. Snyder was making his last argument in 
that old court house, that had been the scene of many of 
his triumphs, his very appearance is still remembered by 
a feAV contemporaries that still survive. It Avas not long 
before his death. Ill health had before that time so im- 
paired his strength, he had given up the general practice 
of the laAv. Much attention Avas attracted by his personal 
appearance. Standing in the presence of the Court, much 

* The Supreme Court oif Illinois. By J. M. Scott, Bloomington, 111., 
189G, pp. 170-209-320. 



346 

debilitated by long siclvness it was evident to everyone who 
heard him, he was making his last legal argument, and that 
fact, coupled with a high personal regard, caused him 
to be heard Avith unusual interest. The end of his life 
came soon. Had Mr. Snyder had more vigorous health and 
had he lived he would have been one of the most prominent 
men in the State. He died during his canvass for Gov- 
ernor of the State. Having received the nomination of his 
party he would surely have been elected Governor of the 
State had he lived." 

He was in constant communication with prominent men 
of his party all over the State, and almost every day one 
or more of them came to consult him personally regarding 
the conduct of the campaign. He intended soon to assume 
active management of it himself, commencing at Alton, or 
Springfield, with an address to the people. But April had 
not yet passed when his temporary and deceptive improve- 
ment began to fail. With advancing of the spring season 
he became weaker. The weather, delightfully warm and 
pleasant— such as had for the last four summers revived 
and invigorated him— now had a debilitating, prostrating 
effect. Still, he struggled against fate and clung to illusive 
hope. 

Hon. Amos Thompson, who came with his parents to 
St. Clair County, Illinois, in 1818, writing, on the 4th of 
July, 1899, then at the age of 92 years, said : ' ' One pleas- 
ant day, when walking through the public square in Belle- 
ville, I observed him (Adam W. Snyder) sitting alone 
under one of the small shade trees then standing on the 
square. I approached him, and our greetings were most 
cordial. After our conversation the last words I heard him 
speak were the following: 'Thompson, is it not hard that 
now I am prepared to live, and to serve my country, I must 
die?' That was the last time I saw him alive. Gov. Koer- 
ner and myself were two of his pall bearers. I have for- 
gotten who the others were." 

It seemed to him a cruel fate to be compelled to retire 



347 

from the tield of action, in the meridian of life, when the 
objects for which he had manfully labored and given all 
the energies of body and mind, w^ere apparently within his 
grasp. 

By the first of May he could no longer leave his room. 
He fully realized the long hard battle he had waged wdth 
the worst of human ills was near its close, and that he 
was vanquished ; and begged to be left alone with his fam- 
ily. Politicians were excluded from his chamber, and but 
few of his friends admitted. Ministers came to pray for 
him, and were politely invited into the parlor, down stairs, 
to pray there, as he did not wish to be disturbed. Assisted 
from his bed to an inclined chair by the open window, he 
inhaled the bracing air fragrant with the breath of apple 
blossoms, and gazed in silence at the radiant sky and fresh 
green grass, and the unfolding leaves and flow^ers joyous 
with the hum of bees and song of birds. No word of repin- 
ing escaped his lips, but the deep sigh and moistened, eyes 
revealed the mental anguish he suifered. 

Thus he passed the first week of the lovely month of 
May. In a few days more he was unable to sit up or leave 
his bed. The tide was ebbing fast. He could no longer 
speak ; but his bright mind remained unclouded. Conscious 
that his last hour on earth had arrived he hoarsely whis- 
pered an affectionate farewell to his mourning family, serv- 
ants and friends gathered around his bed, and calmly, as 
though sinking into a quiet sleep, his life ceased, at 4 o'clock 
p. m., on Saturday, i\Iay 14th, 1842, at the age of 42 years, 
7 months and 8 days. 



Two hours later the Belleville .4di>ocaie— edited by Philip 
B. Foulke, who subsequently represented that district in 
Congress— issued an extra containing the following notice: 

"Died— At his residence, in Belleville, on Saturday, the 
14th day of May, A. D., 1842, the Honorable Adam Wilson 
Snyder, in the 43d year of his age, after a lingering illness 
of several months, from which his physicians, himself and 



348 

his numerous friends throughout the State, had hoped and 
expected he would recover. 

"For several weeks, up to a few days past, Mr. Snyder 
had improved in strength, and strong hopes were enter- 
tained of his ultimate recovery; but his disease, which was 
an ali'ection of the lungs, terminated in dropsy of the heart, 
and carried him oft' about 4 o'clock p. m., with little pain, 
and without a struggle. His mind was calm and composed, 
and he took leave of his family with every token of the 
strongest affection and deepest sensibility, and exhibited, 
in the last dread hour, the resignation and courage of a 
good and virtuous man; as he had always endeavored to' 
do unto all men as he would that they should do unto him. 

"We commiserate the numerous and afflicted family and 
relatives of the deceased, who have lost, in him, a kind, 
true-hearted and affectionate friend, companion and parent. 
"We grieve that society has lost one of its noblest ornaments, 
and the State of Illinois one of her most useful, public- 
spirited and patriotic citizens— a man so well qualified to 
serve his country, and reflect honor on its highest station. 

We grieve, too, that what Ave believe to be the cause of 
Democracy, of correct political principles, and of sound 
legislation, has lost in ]Mr. Snvder one of its ablest and 
most eloquent champions. Long will it be before his place 
is filled by a man equally bold, zealous and independent. 
His temperament was ardent, and his mind one of the most 
active and energetic ever created in a tenement of clay. 
Those who were unacquainted with him can form little idea 
of the strength and fervor of his convictions, the candor 
and liberality of his opinions, the brilliancy of his intellect, 
and the benevolence and goodness which shone forth in 
every feature of his character, and rendered him the de- 
light and admiration of all who knew him. ^lanliness was 
written on his brow, and the milk of hiunan kindness flowed 
around his heart. Xo man in political life, ever exhibited 
less personal hostility towards opponents, or greater char- 
ity in judging the motives of men. He was zealous without 



349 

bi^rotry— Hnn and consistent without arrogance, and un- 
compromising in his political views without the least mix- 
ture of malice or dogmatism, or that rancor of feeling 
which too often characterizes party strife. 

*'We might say of him as was said of a Roman patriot: 

'' 'His life was gentle, 
And the elements so mixed in him. 
That nature might stand up to all the world 
And say, this was a man.' 

"But the present is not the occasion, nor have we the 
ability to do justice to the character of Adam W. Snyder. 
We will leave that duty to some of those who knew him 
longer, and are better qualified to portray his noble quali- 
ties. 

(Here followed a sketch of his genealogy and political 

career). 

"At the time of his death he Avas the candidate of his 
party for Governor; and had his life and health been 
spared him he Avould certainly have exercised the powers 
of that high office, with honor to himself and with great 
advantage and lasting benefit to the State of his adoption. 
He has gone, however, and with him have perished his own 
sanguine hopes and expectations, together with the ardent 
wishes of a vast circle of friends and admirers." 

In its next issue the Advocate said: ''The remains of 
Col. Snyder were followed to the. grave last Monday morn- 
ing by a concourse of friends never before equaled in num- 
bers, in this county on any previous occasion of a similar 

nature. 

"A cloud of despondency and gloom seemed to hang over 
the minds of all present ; the dark shades of grief were 
visible on every countenance. All gave abundant evidence 
how deeply they sympatliized with the bereaved family and 
relatives of the deceased. Col. Snyder is no more. The 
sudden change of his disease under which he laboured is 
attributed to exposure in riding out during inclement 



350 

weather. It was while taking his usual morning ride that 
Col. Snyder was overtaken by a shower of rain, and re- 
turned liome with his clothes completely saturated with 
water which threw him into a relapse that terminated his 
existence."* 

The Illinois State Register of May 20th, 1842, said edi- 
torially, in part: ''With feelings of deepest regret we 
learn that the Hon. A. W. Snyder is no more. He departed 
this life on the 14th inst. at his residence in Belleville, and 
has left a bereaved wife and family, and a large circle of 
friends to bewail his loss. But his loss will be sincerely 
felt, not only by his friends and family, but by the public 
generally. The brightest hopes were entertained by a large 
portion of his fellow citizens that Mr. Snyder was fitted 
by his experience, honesty and ability to aid essentially 
in extricating the State from its present difficulties. With 
these inspiring hopes he was selected by the Democratic 
party as their candidate for Governor ; but death has fixed 
his seal of sorrow upon all those expectations. He is gone 
and a generous people will mourn his loss and grieve over 
his death as a public calamity." 



Gen'l Usher F. Linder, in his "Early Bench and Bar of 
Illinois, ' ' written in 1875, says of Mr. Snyder : ' ' He was 
a most elegant gentleman, and was the only man that ever 
beat old Governor Reynolds for Congress. * * ^ * i 
never knew a man possessing higher colloquial and conver- 
sational powers. He was never at a loss for a word or 
idea. * '^ * * i never enjoyed a richer treat than 
the society and conversation of Adam W. Snyder. Had 
he lived he certainly Avould have been Governor beyond all 

* From the date of Mr. Snyder's nomination for Governor the Whig 
papers throughout the State industriously circulated the (too true) 
report that he was an invalid far gone with consumption; and, if 
elected, would not long survive his inauguration. The Advocate 
sturdily contradicted those statements, and asserted Mr. Snyder was 
only temporarily indisposed, and in a fair way to recovery. This 
explains the Advocate's assertion, in its obituary notice, of sudden 
metastasis of Mr. Snyder's disease to "dropsy of the heart;" and 
also the sudden relapse from exposure to a shower of rain, in the 
funeral notice; neither of which assertions had any basis in fact. 



351 

doubt, for he was decidedly the most popular Democrat in 
the State of Illinois." 

From a sketch of Mr. Snyder in the History of St. Clair 
County, published in 1881, the following extracts are taken : 
'*In 18-11 he was made the Democratic candidate for Gov- 
ernor; but died while the campaign was in progress. His 
election as Governor was assured had he lived. * * * * 
As a lawyer j\Ir. Snyder was remarkable for his power over 
a jury. Between the jury and him there seemed to be a 
feeling of friendly fellowship, and the former nearly always 
set it down that he was right, and gave him a verdict ac- 
cordingly. His speeches were always brief, pointed and 
forcible. He rarely ever spoke more than half an hour; 
but that time Avas sufficient for him to gain a wonderful 
influence over the minds of the jurors. In the defense of 
Gennett, who was tried at Carlyle for the murder of 
O'liarnette, he spoke one hour; but this was the longest 
speech to a jury he was ever known to make." 

In his personal memoirs, written in 1894, among his refer- 
ences to Mr. Snyder, Gov. Koerner says: "While Mr. 
Snyder was aspiring and ambitious, yet in all his conver- 
sations and letters he never urged his claims as absolute. 
He was always willing to subordinate them to what he sup- 
posed was the good of the party. He was one of the least 
selfish politicians I have ever known. * * * * pjg ^^^g 
so loyal to his friends, and yet so open and courteous to 
his opponents that he really had no personal enemies." 

Rev. William F. Boyakin D. D., a contemporary of Mr. 
Snyder, in Belleville, now (1903) 95 years of age, writing 
of him in a series of personal sketches to the newspapers 
of that city in 1896, said of him: "Onward and upward 
he moved in the trust and confidence of the people, and 
in political position, till he was just preparing to take the 
highest seat within the gift of the people of the State, when 
in the full vigor of manhood, he was arrested with disease, 
and in 1842 died. The whole State bowed in mourning at 
so sad an event. * * * * He was a noble man in all 



352 

the elements of true manhood. A close student, clear in- 
tellect, brilliant speaker, warm-hearted, magnetic, the soul 
of honor, and, all in all, a man of pure and unblemished 
morals. ' ' 



In the field of theological and ecclesiastical thought IMr. 
Snyder Avas an agnostic, so constituted mentally as to be 
without a trace of superstition, and wholly unable to be- 
lieve the miraculous and supernatural. He was respect- 
fully tolerant of opinions and doctrines contrary to those 
he entertained; always avoiding religions or theological 
controversies, and treating all sects and denominations with 
polite deference. Ministers of different creeds were his 
friends and frequent guests at his home; and, before a 
Catholic church was established in Belleville, a priest oc- 
casionally celebrated mass at his house before an extempor- 
iz(^d altar for edification of the few Catholics residing there. 

In his view sincerity was the first attribute of true man- 
hood, and he despised hypocracy and all practices of foxy 
craftiness and deceit. He was of sanguine, hopeful tem- 
perament ; self-respecting and honest, a firm, reliable friend, 
and fair, manly opponent. Benevolence, charity and hos- 
pitality were elements of his nature, as was also a "kind, 
amiable disposition. His oratory was not florid or effu- 
sive, but fluent, logical and always earnest and impressive. 
Though a profane adjective at times escaped him in ex- 
citement, his language in conversation Avas grammatical, 
cultured and chaste ; and though he told anecdotes well and 
often, he seldom descended to the vulgar and obscene to 
illustrate his subject. He was not destitute of musical 
talent, and could hum or whistle many of the popular 
airs; but cultivated that gift no farther. In youth and 
health he Avas an elegant dancer, and usually the leading 
spirit in all social gatherings he attended. His indulgence 
in wine and other liquors, for which he had no natural 
or acquired taste, was very limited, and an occasional cigar 
comprised his use of tobacco. All his domestic life, business 



353 

relations and intercourse with the public reflected the nat- 
ural impulses and traits of the true gentleman. 

By his positive request no religious, or church, services 
were held at his funeral. That he was a member of the 
Masonic Order was not known to his family until the day 
of his death. The local lodge of Masons kindly offered to 
take charge of his burial, but their offer was declined by 
Mrs. Snyder, a devout Catholic, who entertained all the 
implacable prejudices of that church against secret societies. 
Hearses had not then been introduced in rural districts of 
the west; nor had ''coffin trusts" yet been invented to rob 
the grief -stricken : and the western people were fortunate- 
ly strangers id the gaudy displays and extravagant folly 
of modern funerals. Mr. Snyder's coffin was the finest 
and best then procurable. It was made, during the night 
and day following his death by Messrs. Kimber and Affleck,* 
tlie town cabinet-makers, of walnut lumber and covered 
with black velvet, ornamented with deep black fringe fas- 
tened around the edge of the raised lid with brass tacks; 
and cost thirty dollars. The coffin, with body enclosed, was 
carried from the residence, by relays of his personal friends, 
to the town cemetery, half a mile distant, and there low- 
ered in the grave. Over his remains was, a few months 
later, placed a paneled tomb of finely dressed stone, bear- 
ing on the broad surmounting tablet an inscription simply 
slating the name, place and date of birth and date of death 
of deceased, with addition of the following epitaph : 

"Ye men of genius tread lightly o'er his ashes. 
For he was your kinsman. ' ' 

Expanding growth of the to\\Ti, some years later, com- 
pelled abandonment of that old burying ground. It w^as 
sold to the Catholic Bishop, and is now occupied by his 
residence and the parochial school building. Mr. Snyder's 
remains were exhumed and removed with many others, in 
1874, and reinterred in the ITarrison cemetery in the east- 

* Mr. James Affleck, a citizen of Belleville since 1818. died in that 
city on the 17th of April, 1902, aged 88 years, 8 months and 2 days. 

—23 



354 

ern suburbs. That, too, was soon in the sphere of the city's 
encroaclmients, and Mr. Snyder's dust was once more 
removed to their final resting place in beautiful Green 
IMount cemetery, a mile and a half beyond Belleville's south- 
eastern limits. 

There, in the midst of charming natural surroundings, 
beautified by the highest perfection of the landscape gar- 
dener's art and embellished Avith imposing monuments of 
sculptured marble and carved granite, repose in peaceful 
solitude all that remains on earth of Adam W. Snyder.* 

* The grave of Mr. Snyder, in Green Mount cemetery, and that 
of Gov. Reynolds, in Walnut Hill, are about a mile and a haM apart. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

Thomas Ford succeeds Mr. Snyder as candidate for Governor — His 
election — His boastful insinuations refuted by himself — The truth 
of history. 

The time intervening between the date of Mr. Snyder's 
death and that of the election was considered too brief for 
calling another delegate convention to nominate a candi- 
date in his place. Democratic papers in the State sug- 
gested their different preferences for the vacancy; and in 
Scott and Shelby Counties Democratic meetings were held 
that passed resolutions recommending Gov. Reynolds as 
their choice. In a few other counties similar public meet- 
ings put forward other persons as the most available for 
the party's candidate. Judge Breese was anxious to be 
announced at once a candidate for Governor, and also 
Col. John A. McClernand; but, by persuasion of friends, 
both consented ' ' not to be in the way, " if by concert of ac- 
tion the party would unite on a leader at an early day. 

On the 17th of June, 1842— a State central committee 
as part of the political machinery not yet having been 
thought of — a meeting of the principal Democrats of the 
State was held at Springfield, who, after long deliberation, 
agreed upon Judge Thomas Ford, at that time engaged in 
holding court at Ottawa, as the candidate for Governor. 
He was born in Unionlown, Pennsylvania, early in the 
year 1800, a few months later than Mr. Snyder's birth, 
and eleven miles distant from Connellsville, Mr. Snyder's 
birth place. Judge Ford possessed a strong, clear, analyti- 
cal mind; had studied law with Daniel P. Cook, and was 
admittedly a superior jurist. He was but an indifferent 
speaker, totally ignorant of the arts and methods of elec- 
tioneering, and was not classed among the aspiring politi- 
cians of the State. He was honorable, and conscientiously 
honest in every motive and act ; but totally wanting in pene- 



356 

tratioii and tact. He canvassed very little of the State, 
and with no exertion, was elected by 8,317 majority, the 
votes cast for him numbering 46,901, and for Gen'l Duncan 
38,581.* 

Gov. Ford died in Peoria on the 3d of November, 1850, 
aged 50 years. All the estate he left at his death was the 
inanuscript of his History of Illinois, published by his 
friend, Gen'l James Shields, in 1854. It is a work of very 
high merit, and was written by~him mainly with the view 
of vindicating his administration from the severe criticisms 
it met from members and newspapers of both parties. The 
chapters on the Black Hawk war, in which he participated, 
were previously written and delivered by him as a lecture. 
The style of the book is clear, comprehensive and philoso- 
phical. Though some of the opinions expressed in its pages 
are harsh and incisive, and a few unjust, it adheres closely 
to facts; and is altogether, for the period it covers, the 
best and most reliable history of Illinois yet written. 

Gov. Ford was very vain of his intellectual endowments, 
if not of his personal appearance. He placed as high an esti- 
mate upon himself, his abilities and political importance, 
particularly after his elevation to the office of Governor, as 
any one else was disposed to do. He arrogantly claimed his 
large majority over GenT Duncan was due to his individual 
force and popularity, when, in fact, any one of the best 
known Democratic politicians in the State would have 
received the same support, because of weakness of the 
Whig party and its candidate. 

Alluding, in his History of Hlinois, to his caucus nomina- 
tion for Governor, he says: "Mr. Snyder had been nomin- 
ated because he was a leader of the party. Mr. Snyder 
died, and I was nominated, not because I was a leader, for 

* There was a third ticket in the field at that election, nominated 
by what was known as the "Liberty Party," an organization repre- 
senting the Abolitionism of Lovejoy. and confined chiefly to Madison 
Countv. The candidates were Charles W. Hunter for Governor, and 
Frederick Collins for Lieutenant Governor; 909 votes were cast in the 
State for Hunter, and 905 for Collins. Mr. Hunter was an enterprising 
citizen of Alton, proprietor of "Hunter's addition" to lower Alton; 
and Mr. Collins was a resident of Collinsville, in Madison County. 



357 

I was not, but because I was believed to have no more than 
a very ordinary share of ambition ; because it was doubtful 
whether anv of the leaders could be elected, and because 
it was thought I would stand more in need of support from 
leaders than an actual leader," In mentioning the expecta- 
tion of his opponent, Gov. Duncan, to be elected on the 
question of Mormon legislation alone, he remarks: "There 
is no knowing how far he might have succeeded, if Mr. 
Snyder had lived to be his competitor." 

Just why "it "was doubtful if any of the (Democratic) 
leaders could be elected," Gov. Ford fails to state; nor 
does he give any reason for his intimation that Mr. Snyder 
might have been defeated had he lived until the election. 
The inference to be drawn, however, is that the ]\Iormon 
question would have been fatal to Democratic success. 

Yet, though the Democrats were justly held responsible 
for enacting the Mormon charters, they carried the State at 
the general election in 1842 Avith a majority of over 8,000 
electing to the Legislature 28 Senators to 14 elected by the 
AVhigs. That overwhelming defeat of the Whigs was chiefly 
due to the reaction of public sentiment following their utter 
failure to redeem their pledges, and ameliorate hard times, 
after the triumph of their party at the national election 
in 1840. That resistless tide of reaction setting so strongly 
in support of the Democrats in Illinois would have ensured 
the election of anyone nominated by them upon their State 
ticket. 

The foolish insinuation of Gov. Ford's is one of the 
very few instances of inconsistency occurring in his admir- 
able history; and was -written apparently to magnify his 
own value to the Democratic party, which he regarded as 
peculiarly fortunate in escaping defeat by having had the 
wisdom to select him for its candidate, because he was not 
a leader. However, the grave danger he surmised Demo- 
cratic leaders were to apprehend from the Mormon ques- 
tion he himself dispels at the close of the chapter from which 
the foregoing statements are quoted, as follows: "As soon 



358 

as I was announced as a candidate for Governor, the Mor- 
mon question was revived against me as being the heir of 
the lamented Snyder. But it could not be made to work 
much against me. I had been as little concerned in the 
passage of the Mormon charters as my opponent. Of course, 
in a State so decidedly Democratic, I was elected by a large 
majority. The banks, the State debt, the canal, and the 
IMormons, together with the general politics of the Union, 
were the principal topics of discussion during the canvass. 
Topics of local interest, lioivever, had but little influence on 
the result of the election. The people of Illinois were so 
tlioroughly partisan, upon the great questions of the nation, 
that matters of merely local concern, though of vital im- 
portance to the people, were disregarded." 

That being so, Avhy was "it doubtful whether any of the 
leaders could be elected?" The campaign of 1842 was 
fought by the two parties altogether upon national issues. 
Questions of State policy were scarcely mentioned, because 
there was no State question at issue seriously dividing the 
people of Illinois at that election but that of the banks, 
and that was completely overshadowed by efforts of AVhigs 
in Congress to reestablish a National Bank. The attempt 
of Gen'l Duncan to make the Mormon charters an issue 
would necessarily have failed, because in that matter one 
party was as deep in the mire as the other. John Moore, 
Democratic candidate for Lieutenant Governor, and a Dem- 
ocratic leader, was a Senator, with Mr. Snyder, in the 
twelfth General Assembly, and was as actively implicated 
in passing the IMormon charters as the others; and still he 
was elected by the majority of 7,141. And he was not so 
generally well known throughout the State, or as person- 
ally popular, as was Mr. Snyder. 

In that same General Assembly, either actively or tacitly 
aiding the passage of the Mormon charters, were Edward 
D. Baker, William A. Eichardson, John D. "Wood, William 
H. Bissell, John Dougherty, Thomas Drummond, Joseph 
Gillespie, John J. Hardin, Abraham Lincoln, John A. Me- 



359 

Clernand, Lewis W. Ross, Lyman Trumbull, David 'M. 
Woodson, and others, whose future political fortunes were 
not in the least affected by their participation in that 
infamy. 

At the August election in 1842 there was no possibility 
of Gen'l Duncan's election, had Mr. Snyder lived to be his 
competitor, or had he been opposed by any other Democratic 
leader, excepting by inducing a sutBcient number of Demo- 
crats to repudiate their own candidate and vote for him or 
refuse to vote for either. Neither contingency was at all 
probable ; for though Gen'l Duncan was highly respected by 
his opponents as an able, just and honest man of sterling 
character, he was more odious to the Democrats politically 
than any public man then in the Whig party in Illinois, and, 
in fact, the weakest candidate the Whigs could have put in 
the field for Governor. 

The world despises a renegade— particularly a political 
renegade. It may become reconciled to the conscientious 
renunciation of religious faith; but not to the party "turn 
coat." True it is, that "wise men sometimes change their 
convictions"; but when they change their political con- 
victions they forfeit forever the confidence of their former 
party associates. The Democrats of Illinois entertained for 
Gen'l Duncan as a politician, in 1842, the same bitter feel- 
ing of resentment that they did in 1866 for Gen 'Is Logan 
and Grant as leaders of the Republican party, and for the 
same reason. He had deserted them and joined the enemy. 
As their trusted leader they had given him their enthusiastic 
support for years, electing him to the State Senate, and 
for four terms to Congress, and then made him Governor in 
1834. 

He had already abandoned the Democratic party when 
he announced himself a candidate for Governor, but con- 
cealed from his old friends at home his apostacy and en- 
listment in the Adams ranks until after his election.* The 
Democrats in 1842 had not forgotten it ; nor had they for- 

* Reynolds' Life and Times, p. 447. 



360 

given him. Thej^ remembered, too, that only two years 
before, he had made himself conspicuous on every occasion 
by his vile abuse of the Democratic party, in the ''coon- 
skin" campaign, that resulted in defeat of the Democratic 
national ticket. The irritating memories of that acrimon- 
ious contest still rankled in their minds and intensified their 
enmity to him and his party. 

And then, as to the Mormon question ; the people of Illi- 
nois well understood the animus prompting the Legislature 
to enact the Mormon charters. All knew that the rapidly 
increasing number of Mormon voters, who all voted to- 
gether, made their support an object eagerly contended for 
by the two political parties. They also well knew that those 
extraordinary charters were originated by the Whigs as 
a bribe to retain to their party the ]\Iormon allegiance. The 
measures Avere introduced by a AVhig senator and a Whig 
representative in the two houses of the Legislature, with the 
expectation of their rejection by the Democratic majority, 
resulting in effectually alienating the Mormons from pos- 
sible affiliation with the Democratic party in future. But 
the Democratic leaders were not so easil}" entrapped, and, 
much to the surprise of the Whigs, offered no objections, 
but reported the bills favorably and helped the AA^higs pass 
them. The sophistry of Judge Stephen A. Douglas then 
convinced the Mormon Prophet, Jo Smith, that he was 
indebted altogether to the Democrats in the Legislature for 
securing his atrocious acts of incorporation; and to the 
Democratic party the Prophet at once transferred his pow^- 
erful support. The people clearly understood the game at- 
tempted to be played by the Whigs, and how they were 
beaten at it by the Democrats. The AA^higs realizing that, 
after sacrifice of their self-respect, honor and decency, they 
had lost the coveted prize, then endeavored to retrieve their 
standing in the State by waging fierce war upon their for- 
mer allies, the Mormons, and trying to fasten upon the 
Democratic party the conse<iuences of their own dishonor- 
able folly. All that was fully comprehended by the people, 



361 

who without exonerating the Democrats in the Legisla- 
ture from blame for their complicity, correctly fixed the 
responsibility of the disgraceful legislation where it proper- 
ly belonged, upon the managers of the Whig party. 

Considering the temper of opinion in the Democratic 
party, under the then existing circumstances and conditions, 
there is no room for doubt that any respectable Democratic 
politician Avould have been elected by a large majority. In 
1840, with all the tremendous exertions of the Whigs 
through a long campaign, characterized by the most exciting 
and sensational rallying efforts by the best talents of their 
party ; with novel and attractive displays, and lavish expen- 
ditures of money ; having a western military hero of renown 
and of high character and spotless record as their candi- 
date for President, against an eastern civilian of aristo- 
cratic tendencies and in no way identified with the west, 
yet, the Democrats carried Illinois by the majority of 1939, 
and elected a majority of both houses of the Legislature in 
which the Whigs were before dominant. In the elections 
of 1840, it must be remembered, too, the Whigs had the 
aid of the Mormons, amounting then to six or seven hun- 
dred votes. Had those votes been given that year to Van 
Buren instead of Harrison the Democratic majority in Illi- 
nois would have exceeded 3,500.' 

By 1842 the Mormon population of the State had vastly 
increased. In the city of Nauvoo they numbered nearly 
17,000, and in Hancock County, outside of Nauvoo and ad- 
joining counties, there were not less than 5,000 more. All 
adult males among them, twenty-one years of age, voted 
after having resided in the State six months— or less, as 
none were challenged. Mr. Snyder, then, had he lived, 
would have received— and Gov. Ford did receive— over 
3,000 Mormon votes. The returns of the election in August, 
1842, show the then normal Democratic majority in the 
State to have exceeded 8,000. In the light of those facts 
it is apparent that for Gen'l Duncan to have defeated Mr. 
Snyder, had he been his competitor, he (Duncan) must have 



362 

received, in addition to all the AVhig votes, more than 4,000 
votes of Democrats and Mormons. Gov. Ford knew well 
enough that no Whig in Illinois at that election, though 
far less odious to the Democrats than was Gen'l Duncan, 
could have detracted the fourth of that number of votes 
from any candidate of the Democratic party, or could, 
under any circumstances have been elected. 

Jeriah Bonham, who voted in 1842 for Gen'l Duncan, 
says: "The AA^hig party, with which he (Duncan) acted, 
in 1842, again nominated him for governor, but the Demo- 
crats were so largely in the ascendent in the State at that 
time that it was almost a forlorn hope for the AVhigs to 
make a nomination."* 

Gov. John Reynolds was writing the' closing chapters of 
his Life and Times, when Gov. Ford's History of Illinois 
appeared, in 1854. The book was shown to him, and his 
attention was specially called to the avssertions, or insinua- 
tions, of Gov. Ford, heretofore quoted, relative to the prob- 
ability of Mr. Snyder's defeat; or defeat of any other Dem- 
ocratic leader, by Gov. Duncan, and he was asked f if those 

surmises were well founded. '*AMiat d d nonsense!" 

said he, ' ' Jo. Duncan beat anv of the Democratic leaders ! 

That d d, contemptible little whelp I (alluding to Ford). 

Why, sir, I, or any other respectable Democrat then before 
the people, could have been easily elected. Adam W. Snyder 
"svas the most popular man in the State, and had he lived, 
his majority over Jo. Duncan would have been bigger than 
Ford's. A good many Whigs would have voted for him, 
as they always did. He would have had the solid Demo- 
cratic vote, the French vote, of course, all the Dutch and 

Irish votes, and every d d iMormon would have voted 

for him ; and, I tell you, sir, Jo. Duncan with the AVhig 
party and all hell together couldn't have beaten that com- 
bination." 

* Fifty years Recollections. By Jeriah Bonham, Peoria, 1883, p. 48. 
t Asked by the writer of this memoir. 



363 

No writer of contemporaneous history can be absolutely 
impartial, particularly in treating of its political actors 
and events. And too often with such chroniclers the his- 
torian's cloak fails to disguise the rabid partisan. 

Since Gov. Ford's book was published two voluminous 
general histories of Illinois have appeared, both issued since 
the close of the civil war. They are both valuable compila- 
tions, well arranged, and elegantly written. Their authors, 
citizens of Illinois, were interested observers of, if not par- 
ticipants in, the violent political upheavals that convulsed 
our country prior to the civil war, and also of that tre- 
menduous conflict between the States, and were throughout 
stanch supporters of the Union cause. They were reared 
and nurtured in the political organization uncompromising- 
ly hostile to the Democratic party. In the histories they 
compiled, when discussing party contentions in the State, 
earnest effort to treat all men and policies concerned with 
even and exact justice is apparent; but strict impartialit}^ 
under the circumstances, would be superhuman. 

The authors of both histories copy with keen partisan 
relish, and profound ignorance of existing conditions at 
the time, the before mentioned innuendo of Gov. Ford. To 
give it greater emphasis and force in mitigation of the 
AVhig party's defeat, the writers of one of the compilations 
after stating, as a historic fact, "It is doubtful if anv of 
the Democratic leaders, in the then temper of the people 
towards the ]\Iormons, could have been elected over so ad- 
roit and courageous a competitor as Duncan," add this 
broad intimation of their own, as meanly malevolent as it 
is untrue, "The death of Snyder proved the triumph of 
the Democracy." 

Thus it is, that errors in our histories, transmitted from 
one to another, are perpetuated. Prejudiced compilers ap- 
propriate, without study or investigation, the doubts or 
guesses of previous writers and, converting them into cer- 
tainty, add their own worthless conjectures, and palm the 
production upon the public as history! 



364 

The complete, accurate history of Illinois is yet to be 
written. Time will surely develop a scholar competent to 
execute the task. In that work of the future its author, 
unswayed bj^ passions or prejudices; independent of par- 
ties and factious, uninfluenced by popular acclaim or cen- 
sure, and worship ing' no accidental satrap or hero, will 
search out every detail of events ; will scrutinize the motives 
and actions of men; investigate the moral forces impelling 
and directing aggregations of men in parties or communi- 
ties, and from the rich mass of materials at his command, 
sifted by sound reason and judgment, and refined in the 
crucible of genius, will produce the truth of history free 
from the dross or alloy of personal bias. 



APPENDIX. 



Note A. 
The Snyder Genealogy. 

Adam Snyder— no doubt of German parentage— was born 
in, or near, the City of Strasburg, Province of Alsace, in 
France, in the year 1759. Of his ancestry nothing is known. 
The name was originally, Schneider (signifying a tailor, oi* 
cutter), a very common German name, but when, where or 
by whom it was Anglicized to Snyder, no one now knows. 
Adam Snyder spoke the German language, not the French, 
and learned to speak English after he came to America. 
The date of his coming to this country is also unknown; 
and, in fact, very little is now laiown concerning him. He 
wys tall, stout, and compactly built, dark complected, with 
dark hair and eyes. Arriving in the English colonies he 
located in the town (now city) of Reading, Berks County, 
Pennsylvania, and there worked at the trade of house car- 
penter until he enlisted in the Colonial army, during the 
Hevolution. He was severely wounded at the battle of 
Brandywine in September, 1777. He was discharged from 
the army at the close of his term of enlistment, in 1779, and 
the next year, 1780, married and settled on a farm near Har- 
risburg, Pennsylvania. There three children were born, 
a son whom he named Balthazer, born March 29th, 1781, 
and two daughters, Margaret and Barbara, the dates of 
whose births are now lost. 

Balthazer married JMiss Mary M. Wartz, near Harris- 
burg, in 1806, and moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, where ho 
worke'Id for some time at the trade of wood turning and 
chair making. Trading ten acres of land he had acquired, 
now near the center of Cincinnati, for 162 acres of heavily 
timbered land in Preble County, Ohio, he moved there and 



366 

passed the remainder of his life in making a farm, and 
raising a family of eleven children. Of those children two 
sons, Nimrod, and Henry M. Snj^der, located in St. Louis, 
and for many years conducted there a bell and brass foun- 
dry, stove works, etc. Adam Snj^der's eldest daughter, 
^Margaret, married, in Pennsylvania, a farmer named Jacob 
Judy, and subsequently moved to Preble County, Ohio, 
Avhere she died childless, in 1841. The younger daughter, 
Barbara, married, in Pennsylvania, one Jessey Swisher, and 
in 1822, moved to Walnut Levels, in Indiana, where she died 
many years ago, leaving a large family of children. 

The ^vife of Adam Snyder died, and he then changed 
his residence to Connellsville, Fayette County, Pennsyl- 
vania, and there married a widow named Schaeffer, whose 
maiden name was Margaret Ilartzel, and who w^as born in 
Somersett County, Pennsylvania. At the time of her mar- 
riage to Adam Snyder she had one son, resulting from her 
first marriage, named Jacob Schaeffer. 

What occupation Adam Snyder had when he resided in 
Connellsville, cannot now be learned. It is very probable 
that he had none, as his children were raised in abject pov- 
erty, and were made to be self-sustaining early in life. AVe 
know nothing of Adam Snyder's habits, mode of living, or 
personality; but the scant history of his family known, 
justifies the inference that he w^as a coarse, uncouth, un- 
cultured man, with little, if any education, no pride of 
character, and no energy, industry, or frugality. He was 
perhaps not always sober, or, if sober, totally inefficient 
and worthless. He was not a member of any church; but 
had the reputation of being strictly honest. He^ied, iu 
Connellsville, in 1830, at the age of 80 years. His wife died 
there in the year following. 

There were born in the wedlock of Adam Snyder and 
Margaret Ilartzel Schaeffer, four children, in the following 
order : • ^ 

Adam W. Snyder, born in Connellsville, Pa., October 6th, 
1799. 



367 

Hiram Snyder, born in Connellsville, Pa., Dec. 3d, 180X. 

Solomon King Snyder, born in Connellsville, Pa., in Jan- 
uary, 1804. 

Lydia Snyder, born in Connellsville, Pa., in 1811. 

Mrs. iMartJ-aret llartzel Snyder was, intellectually, super- 
ior to her husband, and several years his junior. The 
Hartzels were an old pioneer family in Somerset County, 
that could boast of some education and refinement of man- 
ners. They were mostly plain farmers: one brother of 
Mrs. Snyder, and her father, were preachers — Dunkards, 
perhaps — and men of very respectable standing in the com- 
munity in which they lived. 

The second son of Adam Snyder, Hiram, when young, 
had no taste for learning ; and attended school barely long 
enough to acquire the knowledge of reading and writing — 
very indifferently. Hard manual labor was Hiram's lot 
from early childhood. He grew up to the stature of six 
feet, broad shouldered, strong, large-boned and rugged in - 
physical development. He was rather dark completTfed^ 
with black hair and eyes, firm but pleasant features, and 
well-shaped nose. Hiram Snyder was united in marriage 
in 1833, or 1834, to Miss Elizabeth Noble, daughter of 
James and Mary Noble, who was born and raised at Shade 
Furnace, Somerset t County, Pennsylvania. The date of 
her birth was May 18th, 1809. They were a young, healthy, 
robust pair, without education or capital ; but industrious, 
energetic and hopeful. They went resolutely to work: he 
at the iron furnaces, receiving one dollar per day for his 
labor, and often working half the night for an additional 
half dollar; she, besides her household drudgery, at wash- 
ing, sewing and mending for the other furnace Irands. They 
succeeded ; bought a farm, a saw mill, another farm, town 
property, and were wealthy. Hiram Snyder was a typical 
specimen of the higher class of thrifty Pennsylvania farm- 
ers; with unblemished character, perfectly correct habits, 
intelligent, truthful and honorable. He was not a meml)er 
of any church, but his wife was a Presbyterian. Their fam- 



368 

ily consisted of four daughters, named ]\Iary, Eliza, Margar- 
et and Lydia, all born within a mile of Connellsville. The 
three first married young men of that neighborhood; the 
fourth remaining in single happiness; and all passed their 
lives in Fayette, or adjoining counties in Pennsylvania. 
Hiram Snyder was a Democrat in politics, but not a poli- 
tician. The only public position he ever held, as he said, 
was "Supervisor of the mud pike." He died, at his farm 
home, a mile from Connellsville, in May, 1861, of pneu- 
monia, at the age of 59 years and 5 months. His wife 
survived him until Nov. 9th, 1889, when she sank into ever- 
lasting rest at the mature age of 80 years and 6 months. 

Of the early life of Soloman King Snyder, third son of 
^dam and Margaret Hartzel Snyder, nothing is now known. 
He came to Illinois, from Pennsylvania, and joined his 
brother, Adam W. Snyder, at the American Bottom farm, 
near the Sugar Loaf, about the year 1829. He is represented, 
by those still living who knew him, to have been a young 
man of gentlemanly deportment, and fine appearance. He 
was full six feet in height, well proportioned, with hand- 
some face, light complexion, gray-blue eyes and sandy hair. 
He was intelligent, well informed, and a sprightly, enter- 
taining conversationalist. His education had progressed as 
far as the study of Latin, and of medicine; being a recog- 
nized member of the medical profession. AVhere he studied 
medicine, and whether or not he was a graduate of any 
medical college, no one at present knows. Dr. Soloman K. 
Snyder was a very bright man, of superior mental endow- 
ments, but indolent and totally wanting in industry and 
ambition. Of social and convivial disposition he habitually 
associated with the idle and dissolute class and contracted 
a fondness for drink. There is scarcely a doubt that his 
education was partly procured by means sent to him by his 
brother, Adam AV. Snyder, who also sent him the necessary 
funds to pay his way to Illinois. He was furnished an out- 
fit of medicines, books, etc., by his elder brother, to com- 
mence the practice "of medicine in the neighboring village 



369 

of Columbia, in IMoiiroe County. But before he had time 
to establish himself in business there, the Governor issued 
a call for volunteers to repei the invasion of Black Hawk, 
and Dr. Snyder immediately enlisted, as a private, in the 
company of Capt. Thomas Harrison raised in Monroe Coun- 
ty, and served until mustered out of service at the mouth 
of the Fox River on May 28th, 1832. In reorganization 
of the Illinois troops that followed, he reenlisted, as a pri- 
vate, in Capt. Alexander D. Cox's company. Again mus- 
tered out, at Fort Wilbourn, on June 15th, he returned to 
Columbia with the habits of dissipation more confirmed. 
When Adam W. Snyder removed his residence from the 
Bottom to Belleville, in 1833, he brought his brother, the 
doctor, with him, and furnished an office for him on the 
public square, and did all he could to establish him there 
in his profession, but with little success. In the fall of 
1835, Dr. Snyder was stricken down with typho-malarial 
fever. His brother, Adam W. Snyder, had him immediate- 
ly conveyed to his own residence, where he received all 
possible attention and the best medical aid at l^and; but 
he gradually failed, and early in September, died. He left 
no estate whatever, and was never married. He was buried 

* 7 

in the old cemetery at Belleville, and his dust still lies about 
midway between the Catholic bishop's residence and the 
Parochial school building. On a neat stone placed at the 
head of his grave his brother caused to be carved a suit- 
able inscription, with the added epitaph, ' ' Ye men of genius 
tread lightly o'er his ashes; for he was your kinsman." To 
place that sentiment on the grave of Doctor Soloman K. 
Snyder was a commendable tribute of fraternal affection, 
if not strictly appropriate. It was afterwards placed 
upon the tomb of Adam AV. Snyder as a proper recognition 
of his mental abilities, and because he had himself selected 
it as an epitaph for his brother. 

Lydia, the youngest of Adam SnjTler's children, did not 
escape the hard lines that embittered the youthful days 
of her brothers. Her girlhood was passed, uneventfully, at 
—24 



370 

home with her parents, in household drudgery and ignor- 
ance. She learned to read and write, and that was about 
the extent of her literary education. She married in 1833, 
a shiftless, worthless fellow, named William Hawk, and 
continued her cheerless life in uninterrupted poverty. Sev- 
eral children were born to them, who, fortunately all died 
in infancy but two, a son and daughter. Hawk abandoned 
his family, and was heard of no more. His wife received 
substantial aid from her two brothers, Hiram and Adam 
W. Snyder, so long as they lived, and managed to raise her 
children respectably. She was medium sized, of good fig- 
ure, with dark complexion, black hair and eyes, and regu- 
lar features. She was not of happy disposition; too much 
given to repining, and complaining of her hard lot and 
unsympathetic surroundings. Her children are named 
Hiram Snyder Hawk and ]Margaret; both long since mar- 
ried. She died at Braddock's Field, Pa., on the 25th of 
January, 1889, and was buried near her parents at Con- 
nellsville. . 

Mrs. Adelaide Snyder, wife of Adam W. Snyder, died, 
after a brief illness, in Belleville, Illinois, on the 13th of 
May, 1881, aged 79 years, 3 months and 19 days. ]\Ir. and 
Mrs. Snyder lost the following named children in their 
infancy : 

Perry Snyder, born February, 22d, 1822, and died Aug- 
ust 18th, 1822. 

Frank Snyder, born Dec. 21st, 1823, and died on Octo- 
ber 7th, 1824. 

Adelaide Snyder, born June 20th, 1833, and died on the 
8th of April, 1834. 

Edward Short Snyder, born on ]\Iay 9th, 1841, and died 
on the 8th of October, 1841. 

Their three children who survived the complaints and 
diseases of early life, were William Henry Snyder, Fred- 
erick Adam Snyder, and John Francis Snyder. William 
Henry Snyder was born at the Perry homestead in Prairie 
du Pont, St. Clair county, Illinois, on the 12th of July, 1825. 



371 

He graduated at McKendroe college, in March, 18^3, and 
innnediately commenced the study of law in the law office 
of Gustavus Koerner. In 1845 he was appointed Postmaster 
at Belleville, 111., by President Polk. He was admitted to 
the bar in December, 1846. In the spring of 1847 he en- 
listed in a company (E) of volunteer infantry for the 
Mexican war ; was elected first lieutenant, and mustered into 
service, at Alton, 111., on the 8th of June, 1847, and in the 
organization of the regiment (Col. E. W. B. Newby's First 
Illinois Infantry) he was appointed Adjutant. Served in 
New Mexico, and was discharged, at Alton on the 14th 
of October, 1848. In 1849, at the expiration of his term 
as Postmaster he was elected justice of the peace. In 1850 
he was elected a member of the lower house of the Legisla- 
ture, and re-elected in 1852. In 1854 he was appointed 
Prosecuting. Attorney by Gov. Matteson. In 1856 he was 
nominated bv the Democratic State convention for Secre- 
tarv of State, and was defeated. In the fall of the same 
year he was tendered the appointment of second lieutenant 
in the LJ. S. Ca vary and declined it. In 1857 he was 
elected circuit judge. On June 23d, 1857, he was united 
in marriage to Miss Jane E. Champion, of Belleville. In 
1868 he was nominated by the Democrats of his district for 
Congress, and was defeated. In 1870 he was elected a 
member of the Constitutional convention. In 1873 he 
was again elected circuit judge, and re-elected in 1879. At 
the expiration of his terra in 1885 he declined being again 
a candidate, and returned to the practice of law. He died, 
of apoplexy, on the evening of December 24th, 1892, at the 
age of 67 years, 5 months and 12 days. His wife died, of 
cerebro-spinal meningitis, on the 8th of January, 1894, aged 
62 years, 6 months and 21 days. When a young man Judge 
Snyder joined the Odd Fellows, but gave up his membership 
in a short time. He spoke and read French, and was learned 
in classic literature, in history and in the law. He was 
always a Democrat in politics; and not a church member. 
Frederick Adam Snyder was born on the American Bot- 



372 

torn farm, near the Sugar Loaf, in St. Clair County, Illi- 
nois, on Dec. 28th, 1827. He graduated at McKendree col- 
lege, Lebanon, St. Clair County, in March, 1843, at the 
early age of 16 years. He then learned to set type in the 
office of The St. Clair Banner, in Belleville. He subse- 
quently studied law in the law office of Kinney & Bissell 
and was admitted to the bar in the spring of 1847. Very 
shortly after that he received from President Polk the ap- 
pointment of second lieutenant of Company G, 16th U. S. 
Infantry, and reported to Col. Helm, at Louisville, Ky., 
for duty. He served, with his regiment, in the district south 
of the Kio Grande and Saltillo, in Mexico, until the close of 
the war, and the regiment was mustered out of service at 
New Orleans, in October, 1848. In 1849 he crossed the 
plains to California; and there mined for some time with 
indifferent success, and finally, in San Francisco, secured a 
position on the editorial staff' of the Alta-Californian. In 
1852 he was elected, by the Democrats, a member of the 
Legislature to represent one of the San Francisco districts. 
When his first term expired, having higher political aspira- 
tions, he, with Dan.W Gelwicks as partner, established The 
3Ioinitain Democrat , in El Dorado County, California. In 
midsummer, 1854, with a party of friends, he went on an 
''outing" to Lake Bigler (or Taho). On the 23d of July, 
1854, when walking on the lake shore, he suddenly fell, 
with sun stroke, or apoplexy, and immediately expired. 

He died at the age of 26 years, 7 months and 15 days, 
and was buried near the spot where he fell. His remains 
were never removed, and still rest there in eternal repose 
amid the desolate grandeur of the beautiful lake and lofty, 
pine-clad mountains. He was not married: nor a mem- 
ber of any church, or secret society. He Avas, in politics, a 
Democrat and active politician. In childhood he was very 
precocious, and grew up to be a young man of bright intel- 
lect, with sparkling oratory, and cordial, friendly disposi- 
tion. Princely in stature, light complected, with blue eyes 
and brown hair, he was strikingly handsome in figure and 



373 

features, and admirable for his big-hearted generosity and 
manly honor. 

Dr. John Francis Snyder, the youngest son, and now 
the only survivor of Adam W. Snyder's family, having- 
passed the threescore years and ten allotted to man, and 
retired from all active business, has devoted some leisure 
hours to this attempt— undertaken at a late day— to rescue 
from total forgetfulness the memory of his father, and 
kinsmen. 

The last Will and testament of Adam W. Snvder was 
written by himself on the 8th of November, 1840, and wit- 
nessed by John Whitehead and Charles Mount. By that 
instrument he bequeathed all his property, real and per- 
sonal, to his wife and three sons in equal portions. He 
appointed Gustavus Koerner, Lyman Trumbull and James 
Semple executors of his will and guardians of his sons, and 
directed that to each son should be given a collegiate educa- 
tion, then, after graduation, should select the life avocation 
he preferred. 



374 



Note B. 
John Francis Perry and Family. 

Jean Francois Perrey, son of Jean Perrey and Louise 
Villette, of the Bourg de Perrey, in the Province of Bourg- 
ogne, in France, was born there — not far from the City of 
Lyons — in the year 1766. His parents were of the middle 
class of citizens, educated, cultured and, financially, in easy 
circumstances. Young Perrey had passed through the high- 
er schools with credit, and had taken a course in the law 
school Avhen his father sent him to America that he might 
escape the threatened outbreak of the French revolution. 

Gov. Reynolds, who was personally acquainted with Mr. 
Perry, gives the following sketch of him, in his Pioneer 
History of Illinois: (Second, or Fergus, edition, 1887, pp. 
287-290^. "In 1792, Jean Francis Perry emigrated from 
France and settled in Illinois. He was a native of the City 
of Lyons, in France, and was the descendant of a very re- 
spectable and wealthy family of that famous city. His 
mother was a branch of the French nobility and his father 
a judge of dignity and high standing in Lyons. Young Per- 
ry received a liberal and classic education. He also studied 
and practiced law in France. He was gifted by nature 
with a strong mind, and improved it by the best education 
the old country could bestow on him, which made him a 
very superior man. He was forced away from the bright 
prospects before him, of wealth, honor, and high standing 
with his countrymen, and left his native land, his father's 
house and family, for an asylum in America. The French 
revolution breaking out, caused him to migrate to the 
United States. His father decided that his son must retire 
from the scenes of bloodshed for safety in the new world. 
He was fitted out with monej^ and came to the United States. 



375 

He associated with him, ]\L Claudius, a Frenchman, in 
merchandising, and they started from Philadelphia to the 
west. They passed the new settlement of Gallipolis on the 
Ohio; but the good sense of Perry advised him that the 
settlement was too new and too poor for him. He and 
partner reached Cahokia with their small store of goods; 
but soon after settled in Prairie du Pont. 

In a few years after they had opened their store, Claudius 
went to Philadelphia to purchase goods, and was killed by 
being thrown from his horse in the streets of the city. His 
foot caught in the stirrup and he was dragged and torn 
to death on the pavements. 

Perry purchased the ancient mill-site on Prairie du Pont 
creek, where the mission of St. Sulspice first erected a mill, 
long before the cession of the country to Great Britain in 
1763. He built on this site a new and profitable mill and 
occupied the dwelJing near it with himself and family. 
About this time, 1797, he married a young and beautiful 
Creole, a daughter of Jean B. Saucier. This union was 
prosperous and happy. Although Perry was a sound. and 
well-read lawyer, yet he never practiced in our courts. He 
availed himself of the intelligence of the law and his great 
energy and activity in business ; so he amassed a great 
fortune in a very few years. He started into operation his 
mill and kept his store also in profitable order; so that both 
these means advanced his fortune ; but the greatest part 
of his wealth was acquired by his profitable commerce in 
lands. His strong mind, together Avith his knowledge of 
the law, enabled him to enter the arena of land speculation 
with the power to contend with a giant in the traffic. 

He owned at his death choice selected lands all over the 
country, and what is the best evidence of his sound judg- 
ment, he ow^d not a cent at his decease. 

Perry was, with all his wealth, a plain, unostentatious 
man, and lived and dressed in true republican style. He 
paid due* regard to all the various rules of economy, and 
was amiable and benevolent in an eminent degree. His 



376 

house was always open to the poor coming from a distance 
to his mill, and he entertained and made them comfortable 
and happy 'with everytliing his means afforded. He was 
very popular and much esteemed by all classes of people. 
His friends forced him into public employments; he acted 
a long series of years as a judge of the court of common 
pleas. He also acted as a justice of the peace in and for 
the old St. Clair County almost all his life after he reached 
Illinois. Perry learned well the English language; so he 
was at home in that as well as in the French. He was pre- 
vailed on to serve one or more sessions in the Legislature of 
Indiana Territory. He was there in one session at Vin- 
eennes with Judge Bond and Major IMurdock, members of 
St. CJair County. He acquitted himself in all these various 
offices with honor to himself and advantage to the public. 
Some years before his death, by some excessive exertion, he 
injured his constitution, which caused his death. His sys- 
tem was so deranged that the blood-vessels refused to per- 
form their ordinary functions. He wrote to Dr. Rush, of 
Philadelphia, on the subject, and had directions from that 
celebrated physician how to manage the case. He lingered 
in this situation for several years, and became, by the dis- 
ease or by some other means, very corpulent. Blood was 
taken from him every month or oftener, to save his life. 
He died in 1812, in Prairie du Pont, where he had resided 
for nearly twenty years. His decease was a sore calamity 
to his family and the public of that section of the country. 
His family lost a kind, amiable, tender parent and hus- 
band, and his neighborhood was deprived of their best 
friend. 

His mind, as it has already been stated, was of the first 
order for strength and solidity. It was improved and 
trained by education and by profound meditation. He had 
nothing of the gaudy or tinsel character in his composi- 
tion ; but his talents and energy, in this new and poor coun- 
try, had not the appropriate theatre in which to act. He 
was forced off from his country and settled in an obscure 



377 

corner. His talents at Prairie du Pont were like ''the 
rose that wastes its fragrance on the desert air." He pos- 
sessed great energy and activity in business, and with these 
qualifications, he reached the ne plus ultra of his situation. 
He was placed in the highest offices in the country and 
became very wealthy; so he acted well his part in the lim- 
ited sphere in which he was situated. He was upright and 
correct in his morals, but never identified himself with any 
church. His church was nature's creation before him, and 
God the teacher." 

Though generally very accurate and reliable in all state- 
ments of important historic facts and incidents, due al- 
lowance must be made for the style of indiscriminate pane- 
gyric employment by Gov. Reynolds in writing his biograph- 
ical sketches of Illinois pioneers. Plis long years of self- 
training in the fine art of electioneering impressed him 
with the wisdom of the ancient maxim, ^'de mortuus }iil nisi 
honum; particularly if the dead had living relatives, or de- 
scendants, around to read what he wrote concerning them. 
But, apart from motives of mere policy, he was naturally 
averse to committing himself to any statement, however 
true, that would tend to wound the feelings of anyone; 
consequently, in his pen pictures of individuals, he present- 
ed only the bright tints, with little or no shading. 

Jean Francois Perrey, as he wrote his name in French, 
Anglicized to John Francis Perry, was, no doubt, superior 
in intelligence and acquirements to the large majority of 
people in that community. He was a French gentleman of 
education and refinement; but that he ''practiced law in 
France," and ''w^as a sound and well-read lawyer," are 
allegations not verified by any known evidence. In 1801, 
he wa^ appointed, by Governor St. Clair, "a Justice of 
the General Court of Quarter Sessions, sitting also as a 
County Court of Common Pleas." The records are silent 
as to the duration of his service in that office. That he 
acted as justice of the peace in his precinct for several 
years is true; but that he ''was prevailed on to serve one 



378 

or more sessions in the Legislature of Indiana Territory," 
and 'Svas there in one session at Vincennes with Judge 
Bond and Major Murdock, representatives of St. Clair 
County," is a mistake. He was never a member of any 
Legislature. 

Governor William Henry Harrison called a convention 
to meet at Vincennes, capitol of Indaina Territory, on the 
20th of December, 1802, to petition Congress to repeal, or 
suspend operation of that clause of the Ordinance of 1787 
prohibiting slavery in the Northwestern Territory. At an 
election held in Cahokia on the 7th of December, 1802, ioj^ 
thi-ee delegates to represent St. Clair county, Illinois, m 
that convention, Shadrack Bond, Sr., Jean Francois Perrey^ , 
and John Murdock were elected, defeating Wm. Biggs, / 
Isaac Darneille, James Lemen and AVm. Arundel. Bond, 
Perry and JMurdock journeyed to Vincennes, across the 
trackless prairies and bridgeless streams, in midwinter, and 
faithfully executed the trust for which they were elected. 
Mr. Perry was pro-slavery in sentiment, i. e. in favor of the 
institution of slavery as it then existed in the Territory; 
but, so far as can be ascertained, was not a slave holder. 
He was shrewd and active in business, and was, for those 
t,imes, in opulent circumstances. The "great fortune." 
Gov. Reynolds says "he amassed in a few years," com- 
prised his residence at Prairie du Pont, a story and a-half 
double log house with stone chimneys ; a one-story log store 
house, a little water mill on the Prairie du Pont creek that 
was dry two-thirds of each year, and land claims he pur- 
chased or traded goods for, before the act of Congress of 
March 26, 1804, establishing the first land offices, at Vin- 
cennes and Kaskaskia. They amounted to 5,500 acres, 
then valued at 15 to 20 cents per acre. The claims were 
confirmed to him by the U. S. Commissioners, Michael 
Jones, Elijah Bakus, John Caldwell and Shadrack Bond, 
a short time before his death in 1812. The assessed valua- 
tion of his estate at his death, including his land claims, 
could not have amounted to more than five or six thousand 



379 

dollars. The statement that his father was a judge in 
P'rance rests upon the authority of Gov. Reynolds alone. 
Mr. Perry may have imparted that information to the 
Governor. 

There is every reason to believe that his father — whether 
a judge or not— was a "Bourgeois," or citizen of respecta- 
bility and ample means. Mr. Perry came to Illinois well 
supplied Avith money to enable him to establish himself in 
any branch of business he might prefer. His polished 
manners and polite, courteous deportment testified to the 
refined social conditions in which he was reared. Of his 
"outfit.'' brought from France, the few articles that de- 
scended as heirlooms to his family — denoting his station in 
society there to be that of a gentleman— were a fine gold- 
watch that, on pressing a spring, struck the hours on a 
tiny enclosed bell; a heavy gold. watch seal; a large silver 
snuff box; a silver mounted poinard with silver scabbard, 
and his passport out of France signed by the King, Louis 
XVI. 

Mr. Perry was united in marriage in 1787 to ]\Iam'sel]e 
Adelaide Saucier, only daughter of Captain John Baptiste 
Saucier, of Cahokia. Captain Saucier was a lieutenant in 
the engineer corps of the French army when he came to 
Illinois with Chevalier IMakarty, the newly appointed Com- 
mandailt of Fort Chartres, in 1751 ; and he designed the 
plans for the new fort, built of stone, and superintended 
its construction. After France ceded her American pos- 
sessions to England in 1763, Captain Saucier resigned his 
commission, and settled in Cahokia, where he resided until 
his death.* 

That union was blessed by four children, all daughters, 
namely: Louisa, born in 1799; Josephine, in 1801. and died 
in 1812 a few months after the death of her father; Ade- 
laide, born Jan. 24th, 1803, and Harriet on Feb. 13th, 1807. 
Mr. Perry was not a member of the Catholic church or— 

* Captain John Baptiste Saucier at Fort Charters in the Illinois, 
1751-17tJ3." By Dr. J. F. Snyder, Peoria, 111., 1901, Smith & Schaefer. 



380 

Gov. Reynolds says — of any church: but his fixed belief 
in. and humble reverence for, an overruling, omniscient 
and omnipresent Diety, gave rise perhaps, to the opinion, 
entertained by some who knew him, that he was a Huguenot 
in France and fled to America to secure the enjoyment of 
religious libertv then not tolerated there. 

The schoolmaster not yet having penetrated the western 
wilds as far as Prairie du Pont, the Catholic priest of 
Cahokia. a mile or more distant, was the only instructor 
of the rising generation in that community, and he only 
taught his young parishioners, orally, to repeat, parrot-like, 
the catechism; and firmly grounded in their minds belief 
in the miracles and infallibility of the Pope. Not satisfied 
with that curriculum of instruction, Mr. Perry undertook 
the education of his daughters himself, in the elementary 
branches, preparatory to sending them, when sufficiently 
advanced, to proper schools in the east; and, had his life 
been spared, he would doubtless have bestowed upon them 
the learning and accomplishments befitting the station in 
life he desired they should occupy. His two elder daugh- 
ters learned to read and write French, and had commenced 
other studies when his death occurred, and their further 
literary education was suspended. 

In stature, Mr. Perry Avas five feet ten inches in height, 
rather heavy set, but well formed, and very prepossessing 
in appearance. He had regular features, dark hair and 
eyes, and a pleasant expression of face. He was popular 
with all people, and distinguished for his kindness, charity 
and unstinted hospitality. Honor with him was instinc- 
tive, not the bantling of policy, and he recoiled from every- 
thing suggestive of deceit, vulgarity or immorality. He 
v/as always very accommodating to his friends and neigh- 
bors, many of whom looked to him for assistance, counsel 
and guidance in their business affairs. After passing the 
thirty-fifth year of his age an obscure disease of the circu- 
lation—or heart — insidiously invaded his system, threaten- 
ing in its development and progress to terminate his life 



381 

b}' apoplexy or asphyxia. He became corpulent and, at 
times, much embarrassed in respiring-. He visited Phila- 
delphia and consulted Doctor Benjamin Rush, of that city, 
then one of the most eminent physicians in the United 
States, and the course of treatment, and reg-imen, he ad- 
vised, though having but little curative elt'ect, no doubt 
prolonged his life to some extent. But he died in August. 
1812, at the early age of 46, and was buried in Cahokia. 

After the death of Mr. Perry, his daughters, deprived 
of his wise counsel and further enlightenment, were led by 
their mother into the Catholic church, to which they ad- 
hered, with increasing devotion, to the close of their lives. 

Mr. Perry's widow married, in 1815, one Augustine Pen- 
soneau, a very ordinary, illiterate Canadian Frenchman, 
who died in 1819, leaving her with two additional small 
children, xVugustine and Felicite Pensoneau. Mr. Perry's 
eldest daughter, Louise, was married when quite young, 
to Joseph Trotier, a native of Caholda, and died within a 
year after her marriage. The second daughter, Josephine, 
died when eleven years of age, in 1812. The third daugh- 
ter, Adelaide, eldest of the two living, whose education had 
progressed no further than reading and writing the French 
language, was married October 18th, 1820, to Adam W. 
Snyder. Her changed and improved associations after mar- 
riage, stimulated her desire for a wider range of knowl- 
edge. She learned to speak and read the English lan- 
guage, and through that medium gained considerably in 
scholarship and general information, yet never attained 
the degree of culture so much desired by her father and 
husband. She acquitted herself passably well in the new 
and intellectually higher circles to which her marriage with 
Mr. Snyder introduced her, but retained the simple tastes 
and manners of her girlhood, and still clung with affection 
t^ the traditions and memories that clustered about Caho- 
kia and its people. 

]\Ir. Perry's youngest daughter, Harriet, in 1822, when 
still lacking two months of completing her sixteenth year 



382 

of age, married Louis Pensoueau, a young mau born and 
reared in Cahokia. They began together the momentous 
journey of Avedded life on a farm, five miles east of St. 
Louis on the Belleville road, known as La Pointe a La 
Pierre; the name originating from a point of timber there 
jutting into the prairie, and the place having formerly be- 
longed to a Frenchman named La Pierre. Only four 
years after th^y commenced farming, with every prospect 
of a prosperous and happy future before them, in 1826 
Pensoneau died, leaving his young Avidow Avith an infant 
son, Louis Perry Pensoneau, noAV a citizen of ^Murphys- 
boro. 111. She then returned to Prairie du Pont and re- 
mained there AA^ith her mother until 1833. In ]March of 
that year, having purchased a house and tAA^o or more lotb 
lying betAveen the premises of GoA^ RcATiolds and A. W. 
Snyder, in BelleA'ille, she left, the American Bottom and 
located in her ncAV home. Her mother came A\-ith her to 
pass the CA^ening of her days A\dth all her children together, 
her lease of life ending in October of the succeeding year, 
1834. She, the daughter of Oapt John Baptiste Saucier, 
and Avife of John Francis Perry, passed aAvay at the age 
of fifty-six, and, couA^eyed to Cahokia, her remains AA'ere 
laid in a graA^e adjoining that of Mr. Perry, and near that 
of her father, in the old cemetery contiguous to the church. 
Her son, Augustine Pensoneau, Avas taken by Mr. Snyder 
and reared by him as one of his famil}^; the daughter, Fe- 
licite, AA^as adopted in the family of Mrs. Harriet Penso- 
neau, and, in 1836, Avas married to Narcisse Pensoneau. 
For many years Mrs. Harriet (Perry) Pensoneou resided 
in Belleville. She ncA^er remarried; never mastered the 
English language so as to converse Avith ease, and remained 
illiterate. Sbe Avas a noble Avoman, possessing the most 
sterling qualities of heart and mind. She left Belleville 
with her half sister Felicite and her family, in 1868, and 
lived AAith them on a farm in the eastern part of St. Clair 
county until her death, that occurred on April 22d, 1882. 



383 



Note C. 

Speech of Mr. Snyder on the hill introduced for "Re- 
organizing the Judiciary." In the Senate of Illinois; 
twelfth General Assembly; December 10th, 1840. 

The Senate having resolved itself into a Committee of 
the Whole, Mr. Snyder, Senator from St. Clair County, 
said : 

"It will doubtless be expected from me, as the mover of 
this bill, to explain to this Committee the grounds on which 
I am prepared to sustain it, and the reasons which have led 
me to introduce it. In undertaking to do this I regret ex- 
tremely that my present indisposition is such as to pre- 
vent me from doing that justice to the subject which its 
importance so amply deserves. I will, therefore, for the 
present, content myself with simply presenting to the Sen- 
ate the views which, after long and mature reflection, I have 
been led to adopt, intending afterwards, when other mem- 
bers of this honorable body shall have presented their views 
and objections, to go more at length into the subject in my 
reply. It will afford me great pleasure to hear the senti- 
ments of those gentlemen who may ditfei from me as to 
the policy and propriety of this measure. It is far from 
being my wish or desire to hurry a measure of this im- 
portance through the Senate. It stands on too high ground 
to have anything to apprehend from the most piercing and 
searching investigation. I want such an inquiry. I invite 
the most rigorous examination of the subject. I wish the 
measure to come from our body as perfect as, in the na- 
ture of human affairs, is possible. 

The bill, as it will be perceived, is simple in its provis- 
ions, and free from all complexity in its principles, or in 
its details. It proposes, first, to repeal the present circuit 
court system, and, instead of maintaining the present num- 



384 

erous body of circuit judges, to appoint only five other jus- 
tices in addition to the present number of the Supreme 
Court. It further proposes to impose circuit court duties 
upon all those justices, and to unite the whole body of 
judges into one judicial body to constitute the Supreme 
Court of the State. 

Before I proceed to explain to the Senate the advantages 
which are expected to be gained by this simple plan of 
organization, as proposd by the bill, it will perhaps be well 
to make some remarks on our present system, and to point 
out some of its most glaring defects; by which the neces- 
sity of a new organization may be more fully impressed on 
the mind; after which I propose to show in what manner 
the defects pointed out will be fully met and remedied by 
the measure of this bill. 

The great end and object of every judicial system in 
every state and country is, to have a wise, good and equal 
system of Jaws, and to have such a judiciary arrangement 
as to execute those laws well; to expound them uniformly 
throughout the State; to act upon the same rules and sys- 
tem, so that one mind and one spirit may pervade the whole 
administration of laws from one extremity of the State to 
the other. Another important object desirable to be at- 
tained in the administration of the laws is such a system 
that individuals who are employed as agents in their exposi- 
tion should be connected with the people, and become prac- 
tically conversant with their wants, their feelings and their 
customs, that they should act in concert, and be acquainted 
with the decisions made, and rules adopted in every circuit 
court in the State. By which means alone the judges them- 
selves can be rendered experienced and able in the discharge 
of their duties, and such a uniformity of system pervade 
the country as will tend to give certainty to the laws, and 
satisfaction to litigants, and render justice to the people 
at large. This cannot be arrived at where the judges are 
separated and distinct from the people, and from one an- 
other, and where they are not constantly thrown into a 



385 

situation calculated to give tlieiii knowledge and experience 
which is to be obtained by no other means than constant 
and habitual practice in all the several courts. Another, 
and perhaps a minor consideration is, that the system should 
be carried^ with as much economy as is compatible with 
its due perfection. 

Now, sir, no gentleman here, I am sure, can be found 
who will contend with me that these objects are attained; 
or— in the nature of things— can be attained, under our 
present system. The system is disjointed, unconnected and 
inharmonious, and the consequence that follows is, that our 
laws are interpreted differentl}^ in different parts of the 
State; our judges arrive at decisions diametrically the re- 
verse, one of the other; our people do not know certainly 
what is the law ; or, rather, what is the interpretation which 
wdll be sjiven to the law. And when at last a final resort 
is had to that court w^here most w^e should look for certainty, 
uniformity and unerring decision, there all the evils w^hich 
belong to the disunited system in its several branches, in- 
stead of meeting with a remedy, are only aggravated and 
increased, till, at last, our wdiole legal administration be- 
comes a mass of discord and confusion, creating just dis- 
satisfaction among the people; and calculated to do us 
discredit abroad. Let it not be imagined that I exaggerate 
those evils. They are not of so light a nature as some may 
be inclined to represent. 

What, sir, can be more disastrous to a people than to live 
under a system of laws where doubt and uncertainty hang 
over the decisions of the Courts? Where that which is 
law in one part of the country is not law in another parti 
Where what is right at the north is w^rong at the south por- 
tion of the country? Can a system operating in that man- 
ner, as it undeniably does with us under the existing system, 
meet with support and countenance from any man who ven- 
tures to consider himself a patriot — a lover of his country? 
Can anyone hesitate to acknowledge that the time has ar- 
rived when these evils are felt through the land, and when 
—25 



o 



S6 



they ought to be remedied ' Permit me, sir, to illustrate 
the point I have assumed hy an instance familiar enough to 
every gentleman who is at all acquainted Avith the practice 
so frequently occurring in our Supreme Court as it is at 
present organized. A circuit judge decides a cause which is 
carried by appeal to the Supreme Court. Some important 
point of law is involved in this cause, which is of import- 
ance to the comitrj' and should be permanently fixed and 
decided. The Supreme Court divides equally on the ques- 
tion, and the consequence is the decision of th»e circuit judge 
is sustained. Well, sir, the Supreme Court has by that de- 
cision decided what is the law of the land, and it is pub- 
lished to the world, and is recorded in the judicial records 
as the decision of the Court of last resort. Now, sir, let 
me ask, is it to be tolerated in this or in any other, coun- 
try, that a solemn decision of a great and important ques- 
tion of law once made in the Supreme Court of the State 
shall perhaps at the very next session of that Court be 
changed, altered and revei'sed, and a totally contrary de- 
cision be given, thereby shaking to its foundation the whole 
edifice of our laws, and spreading doubt, indecision and un- 
certainty throughout the land ? Yet, sir, such is the case ; 
such is the lamentable fact; such is the deplorable vascil- 
lation of our present system I The very point which has 
been decided affirmatively in the Supreme Court, as I have 
shown, is again brought up from another circuit where the 
judge has made a different decision, the Court is again 
equally divided, and the circuit judge's decision is sustained 
in the contrary sense, as that which was law before is now, 
by the very same Court, pronounced not to be law; and 
the Supreme Court itself becomes the reverser of its own 
. decision, and a disturber of the surety and stability of 
the laws! Is this to be tolerated f Is this doing justice 
to the people? Is it becoming in us as legislators to suffer 
such a system to prevail? Is it not time, sir, to change, to 
amend, to reform a system so perverse, so contradictory, 
so absurd as this? I need not amplify my remarks on this 



387 

subject. The facts are before us all. They are too well 
loiown to be disputed, or their deplorable effects to be de- 
nied. There is no concert in our courts; there is no har- 
mony or union among our judges. Our Supreme Court is 
dissevered from the people, and from the practice of the 
circuit courts, and the effects are discordant decisions, un- 
certain laws, an unequal distribution of justice throughout 
the State ; general incertitude among lawyers and people 
as to the supreme law of the land, and a general discord- 
ance and dissatisfaction among the people. This, sir, is not 
the fault of our laws : it is the fault of our present system. 
Do we not, almost every day, in the halls of our Legislature 
meet with evident proofs of the defect of our system? Are 
not the people driven here to seek for an interpretation of 
our laws? AVe take up the case in committee, and exam- 
ine and enquire into it. We find that the law is plain, is 
fixed, is certain, is intelligible. We then decide that no 
alteration is required; that no new interpretation is neces- 
sary; but what do we learn from gentlemen on this floor? 
AVhy, sir, that one judge in one circuit has decided the law 
one way ; 'another judge in another circuit has decided it in 
another and dift'erent way, and the Supreme Court again 
has decided it in still another way. Is it doing justice to 
the people to permit such anomalies? Are we performing 
our duties as legislators, as patriots, as men, if we refuse 
to unite our efforts to reform this blot; to purify this Au- 
gean stable of its odious contrarieties, and its fatal contra- 
dictions? Again, sir, w^ho can pretend to say that, under 
our present system, we are in the enjoyment of equal laws, 
and a fair, just and uniform administration of justice ? Do 
not all our courts in all our circuits differ in their order, 
in their rules, in their practice, and in their decisions from 
one another? Is it not almost like passing from one for- 
eign country to another; from one system of laws to an- 
other totally diff'erent when we pass from one circuit of our 
State to another? Every legal gentleman who hears me 
will respond affirmatively to the truth of what I say. No 



388 

man can deny the existence of the evils under which we 
suffer, and surely no man can refuse to aid in their rem- 
edy. Now, sir, the bill before the Senate is intended to 
remedy these evils, and I will proceed to explain its details 
as briefly as possible, in order to make it plain that it will 
effectually remedy them. 

AH the difficulties I have pointed out will be remedied 
by the measure now before you. There will be only nine 
judges instead of a larger body of circuit judges and the 
other judges of the Supreme Court. These nine judges will 
virtually constitute the Supreme Court, and they w^ll be, 
separately, the circuit judges in the several circuits, per- 
forming all circuit duties throughout the State. It will 
be one united body; one consistent system without dis- 
traction and disconnection. They will separate to perform 
their circuit duties, and will meet together once, or twice, 
each year to compare notes; to harmonize their action, and 
combine their several decisions. They will act in concert, 
and be guided by the same rules in their several circuits. 
Thus, uniform decisions will be made throughout the State ; 
justice will be administered in all the courts in* harmony, 
order and equality such as is unknown in our present sys- 
tem. Justice will then be administered by one united body ; 
coherent, and meeting periodically together to decide the 
different and new points of law w^hich, in a country like 
ours, are daily arising, and for which no precedents can 
be found. 

One great and important result flowing from the system 
proposed by this bill, namely, uniting all the circuit judges 
to form in one body the Supreme Court of the State, will 
be this : that it will prevent litigation to a greater extent 
than the present system is capable of doing; one of the 
greatest evils of which is that litigation is fostered by the 
uncertainty of the decisions and incoherency of action of 
the judges. There will be fewer appeals, because there will 
be more certitude and more confidence in the decisions ren- 
dered on the several circuits by judges who belong to the 



389 

Supreme Court, and who carry with them into every cir- 
cuit a knowledge of the last and latest decision of the Su- 
preme Court. Thus, great delay, much expense, and end- 
less perplexity and confusion will be spared to the people. 
Again, sir, the Supreme Judges engaged in performing 
circuit duties, daily administering the laws, giving con- 
struction to the statutes, and deciding the moral points 
of law which arise in practice, will not, as now, under our 
present system, be rusting in idleness at home, ignorant of 
what is going on in the circuits. Their minds will be more 
sharpened, their faculties more called forth into action. 
They will serve their country better and obtain the respect 
and confidence of their fellow-citizens by their greater 
experience and more practical knowledge. If time would 
permit, I might refer to other countries to show that no 
such system as ours has ever prevailed, or been adopted in 
any civilized country. I might point to the example of 
England, the parentof our common law, and the source 
of our legal knowledge, to show that the wisdom and learn- 
ing of her great judges, and of the writers of jurispru- 
dence, have been obtained by a system the same as this bill 
proposes. Her judges do not pass their days in supine in- 
difference and inactivity at the seat of government, decid- 
ing once a year on cases of which they know nothing, from 
counties of whose people, their customs and their habits, 
they are ignorant. No, sir; they perform the laborious 
duties of itinerant circuit judges, and meet together in one 
body to decide great questions which arise on the circuit, 
where each one is able to communicate his experience to 
the others, and combine to produce a stability and uniform- 
ity in the administration of justice, which cannot be ob- 
tained under any other system. They have no sinecure 
judges; no supine Supreme Courts, such as we have; but 
the very men w^ho have been in the constant occupation of 
dispensing justice in the remote counties, and those Avhose 
united experience and wisdom, called forth by labor, prac- 
tice and experience, forms, as it were, the Supreme Court, 



390 

or the twelve justices of the realm. But, I will not rely 
upon examples drawn from countries for which our repub- 
lican souls have no great affinity. I will satisfy myself, 
and perhaps those who hear me, better by turning to an 
example nearer home. AA^at, sir, is the system of our 
Federal Judiciary? Do we keep at Washington City a 
number of men not conversant with the country; not exer- 
cised in the administration of the laws? Or only called 
upon once or twice a year to decide cases which their dor- 
mant position renders them almost incapable of judging 
correctly? Do w^e withdraw them from the busy scenes 
of legal life, and thus incapacitate them for the business 
v/hich requires all the powers and keeness of human in- 
genuity and judgment? No, sir! They are thrown upon 
the circuits and districts to gather wisdom and experience 
by constant practice, and having been reared among the 
people, attending to their duties in distant parts oi the 
country, in many and different courts, they afterwards 
meet together to form that august tribunal whose decisions 
in consequence of that organization have gained the re- 
spect and admiration of the country. Such, sir, is our 
Federal system, and such is the basis of the system which 
this bill proposes for adoption. The condition of the 
country imperatively calls upon us for a reform in the 
administration of our laws. The people demand it. Jus- 
tice requires it, and surely we will not be found backward 
in promoting this great and necessary reform. There is a 
difficulty which often stands in the way of great and useful 
undertakings and prevents, or at least, retards for a long 
time, their accomplishment. I mean their expense. In 
the present situation of our State if this obstacle stood in 
front of the present measure I should hesitate in bringing 
it forward. But, sir, the value of this bill recommends it- 
self to our support by its economy, while it is, from the 
reasons I have already advanced, superior to the present 
system, it will be, at the same time, far less expensive. If 
it had no other merit than this it might well indeed be ob- 



391 

jected to, but in consideration of the many other superior 
advantages it possesses, I may, also, be permitted to men- 
tion this one The present system costs, annually, $15,000 ; 
the proposed reorganization will cost, for nine Supreme 
Justices, $13,500, showing a saving to the State of $1,500. 
Should an additional circuit be formed— and I am given to 
understand it may be necessary— still an additional Su- 
preme Judge would not increase the present cost of 1he 
judiciary system. This is no sudden project with me; it 
is the result of long obser\^ation and mature reflection. 
When our present Circuit Court system was adopted I was 
a member of the Senate, and opposed the measure. I may 
say I plainly foresaw its evils, and disadvantages. Ex- 
perience has fully justified me in the course I then adopt- 
ed. The sense of the people is with me in the view I have 
taken of its evils, and therefore, as the fruit of long reflec- 
tion and thought upon the subject, believing it to be imper- 
atively called for by the wants of the people, I have 
brought forward this measure and for the sake of the coun- 
try, for the honor and credit of our State and its laws, I 
fervently desire that it may pass. I know it has been ob- 
jected that in process of time more circuits will be neces- 
sary and additional judges will be required. I see no force 
in this objection. It is a question of expense, and the ob- 
jecton applies to the present system more strongly than it 
does to the measure of this bill. For when our population 
is increased, and the business, trade and commerce of our 
State multiplied, will any one venture to say we can go 
on with our present plan ? 

AVe must create more circuits and make additional judges, 
and as the present system has been shown to be more costly 
than the measure proposed, so, also, in a conditon of more 
advanced prosperity, when the cost of either plan would 
be increased, still our present plan, if continued, would 
be more expensive to us than this measure would be even 
if it was extended and enlarged. Under every point of view, 
therefore, in which this subject is considered, the advant- 



392 

ages preponderate in favor of this measure. If we con- 
tinue our present system till we arrive to double our pres- 
ent wealth and population we will then require at least 
twenty-four judges on our present plan, so defective is it 
even at the present day in supplying the wants and coming 
up to the conditions of the country. Should the number of 
nine judges not be found adequate to accomplish all the 
objects required in the administration of justice, I pro- 
pose to bring forward a measure by which the business of 
the circuits will be greatly reduced and diminished. By 
which in each county lesser circuits of more frequent ses- 
sions will administer justice to the people both more fre- 
quently and more cheaply. Into the minor details of this 
measure it will, however, not be necessary for me to enter. 
This much I have thought proper for me to say at present 
to the public the reasons which have induced me to propose 
the measure of this bill. When it shall have undergone 
further discussion, and other and abler reasons shall have 
been given by its friends in the Senate in its favor, I have 
the fullest confidence that its. superior merits and advant- 
ages will secure its adoption. 



O 



a 
IT 

03 

o 

03 

S 
CO 



>*^ 

O O) 

■^^ 

ft o 

O 13 

CO 

<v 

^3 



o 

a 

ft 

03 

Q 



c 

CO 






P 






m 

o 

CO O 
00 tj 

J5 C 

^^ 
0); 



.Coo 



45 





.c 

CO 






c 








1^ 

TO '-• 

.si 


(1) 

o 




> 


o 


s 


is 


0.5 


'="C 


u 


X c 






o 


0) o 




0^ 


Si 


oo 


OQ 









4= 
bo 
3 
O 

X» 

3 
C 

O 



s 
s 

o 
u 

O 



o 

o 



o 
U 

6 



o 
O 

o 



: o <^ o 
oOOg 

o 

Sh Sh ^ 

2*5 d o 



o 



-a 

d 



M xn 



SmocS 



: o d ci 
u 

0) d o d 

O ; d 



uu5uuo5o5o55 

ddo<^d^ododoc 

13 CO U "CO 

d • -cd. ;d,;dd 



S S= d 

g cfl dr 
1- j_i 



r< O O O 

d o C-; 
?7 K K d 






- c; d 



d 









Wc.q 






en 



"< 1-5 1-3 



M o S -iS 
^gdt-^ 

Qi d c "2X3 



M 
J 



— i 01 

. Co; 
■^ 0) dr- ^^ 

U . oj Ox: 









CQ 

0) 

d 



E-l 1^ o ^, tc — '-^ 



c 

0) 2;' ri '^ K" O 
Ci— ( sh'^ 
o m 'O '1' .- "■= '^ 



C 

-d 3 
5 c r-'x; 









jrt O 3t-5._, 
f^^d 



^£ d 



d oii^-- 'I' <iJ d :;: d d «: .- li 






^£ 

d d 



Oh ^ M d t^ CQ o ^ *^ •'^ '*' '^^ "^ '"^ '■^ ""^ it' *"" i^ cc n 






O 

Q 

I— ( 



?3£ 

2?o 



«£> 



I 5 5 

Jj 2 ® c 

C3 w ^ > M . O 

s . s^ ^ is. ^ . ^ 

fl J^ ^ .ti .1i bfl d g *" - cd § rt rt 

^^ u u^ ^-^ B ^ -M SB cgs 

s Stow =:o fi'-' 

t^o o Q<i < i o o ^ Dh o OOP 

I •::::: I ::•::::::::::: d :::: I :::::::•• d 
:.:::: :d • -^ ::::•:::•: :'^ :::::::::::: —u 

5:006: 6U:d5 6 ° O d : d ° 6 d dr9'dr°,rSr°r^ oP-^P^ oPP- oP '■ '-o 

^°oouoo oo'-^u^^Ujgu^uuo^ c^^^'^o^'^o^'^C)^ : :c 

c3®ooo^07;So7:o<^cijoSodooofii-irtrtrtdoi^c^oc^c^o<^nn>-H 
U 2.2.22.2 2.2 -§ 2.2 -§.200.2 2.2o-2.2.2o^0000.26o.26o.2o i<: 

•OcjojcdocCrtOrtcji^ ; rdort -dctid -o • • • -"^ • -d • ■ ci ••^■^o 



Q 






m 

C 

OS 



H : : : 
o tj:-- . 

h a? "5 '^ 

S]730o 
0000 



:d d oj OT 

0)01 



wo 



:tf 



m 



c3 



o a; 



•S H 

cu.« ._ 
— ^ — ' o 



- -T?^'" 



S 73 

O) C 

*^ 



Vic\ 







o 



«^1^' 






(5'S o 

O 






:W 



O 



'^ -05 

d 01=0 

00^ 
g m"o 

ao c -^ 

o 01 '^ c o 
_,^ - 0+JJ3 o o 



01 






o -02 
m C 
Mr; . 

fcT m" m' 
o rt c3 

0) o o 



= ^ " ' 
o-« Jii^ 

o w to 
H) 01 o.-,.« 

o o o^r 



:.« ^ ! 

m 



xn 






O ij 



O. 



w tn 



oo-r''^oj3oo 



i 



■W'. 



m 



v. 

t 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




014 752 012 8 







'-Ml 



t *i< • • 'I r'l I -I'll 



"^11 .,1 • -'■' 






V:'^^■■■^vS|:i';■;U■ 






• ' _ ;,,. 1./ *,)•'** 


;*r^, 


1 ' *, ' 
. ■ . . 1 '1 ■ ;■. 1 

'1 « 


^ 1 

■■ \ 
1 1 

■ t 
. . . ) 



>:•: 



> • U • 1,1,' • ■, i 1 lit 

1 , • . S ■ l.ilf 

• • ■■'',■ I !■• ,«'«•'■% 



••fll 



, 1 • ■ M ',11 4 ( 

' i . ■ -I I i< • • 

:■.;•'; -'..hMV: 



■'. .^j','. 



i,1 

rl.' 



;• '. ■'•',^ ; "".''',:,S','.;ivi 



